Author: Gina Wilkins

I like to think of myself as courageous. I suppose most people do. But deep down, I know I’m really sort of a wimp about certain things. I have little fear of snakes, but spiders make me run screaming in terror. My children were killing spiders for me as soon as they were old enough to hold a fly-swatter.  I’m not particularly afraid to fly, but I don’t like being in those fast boats that lift up at the front when they take off in the water — so no boat riding with my brothers! I love cats, but strange dogs running toward me can have me climbing on my husband’s shoulders. I have no fear of public speaking, even enjoy it, but I sometimes get nervous at social gatherings that require mingling and small talk. Going to the doctor isn’t my favorite pastime, yet I tolerate most medical procedures pretty well — but I’m a nervous wreck when I go to the dentist’s office, even for a routine cleaning.

I suppose one of my biggest fears is having anything done to my eyes. Putting eye drops in my eyes requires three grown men and a team of horses (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration. My husband can get them in eventually, though he’s been known to snap at me in exasperation to stop flinching away at the last moment). I’ve never even tried contact lenses, though I’ve worn glasses most of my life. It’s ironic that I have a chronic problem with infections and styes on my right eye that often have to be treated rather aggressively with drops, ointments and — gulp! — lancing and draining. I wrote recently about a particularly nasty infection I suffered a couple of months ago. That led to a chalazion that had to be lanced and drained yesterday.

I was truly going to be brave this time. I know it’s an uncomfortable procedure, but not terribly painful. The deadening shots in and under the eyelid aren’t fun, but they’re fairly quick and they do the job as far as blocking sensation. My ophthalmologist is the nicest man in the whole world, and I always feel guilty for whimpering or flinching with him because it seems to upset him so badly to think he might be causing pain. So I sat up like a big girl for the shots — and then, as always, the world started to spin and I had to be laid back in the chair with a fan on my face. Sigh. He finished the job quickly, propping my eye open with some sort of instrument, then cutting and scraping and swabbing and whatever as gently and swiftly as he could — while apologizing every minute or so for having to do so. I came home with a patch on my eye for a few hours and only a little pain when the deadening wore off. Today my eye looks so much better than it did before the procedure and I’m glad to have that ugly lump gone. So why does my body react so dramatically when my head knows better?

Fear keeps us from doing a lot of things in life. Fear of pain, fear of consequences, fear of embarrassment, fear of failure. Fear has its place in our lives — as my kind ophthalmologist pointed out, it’s only natural to be afraid when someone comes at your eye with a needle and a knife. But it can also be a terrible hindrance to leading a full and rewarding life. Maybe I wasn’t the bravest patient poor Dr. Paddock saw yesterday, but I came through just fine, and I’m glad I had the really-minor procedure done. Soon it will be time to schedule routine mammogram and colonoscopy — neither of which are fun, but definitely worth the effort. There are other things on my to-do list that make me nervous, but that I know will pay off in the long run if I just make myself try.

As Edward Rickenbacker said, “Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” So maybe I’m not such a terrible coward, after all? Because I know exactly what it’s like to be scared!

What fears are holding you back from something you really want or need to do?

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There was no winner for this month’s drawing. See what I mean about how you can’t win if you don’t enter?

I’m doing something new for the next two months. There will be no drawing on August 1 due to deadlines and vacation and other summer scheduling. Instead, I’ll have a drawing September 1. The prize will be any two books the winner chooses from my backlist (subject to availability, of course). Click on the Enter to Win! tab above for more details.

And don’t forget: THE DOCTOR’S UNDOING, my newest Silhouette Special Edition, is in stores now!

Anyone who knows me either in person or through this blog is aware that I am not a fan of hot weather. The past couple of weeks in Arkansas have been sweltering, with temperatures hovering in the upper nineties and heat index readings in the hundreds. As much as I enjoy going on nature walks, or attending Arkansas Travelers baseball games or just sitting outside on the patio, all of that has to wait until a break in this heat! At least I’ve gotten a lot of writing done, sitting in my air conditioned den with a glass of iced tea and admiring nature from inside the glass doors.

For those of you also looking for ways to escape the summer heat, here are a few suggestions:

Find a shady spot by a cool lake. The photo above was taken at a popular shore-fishing spot on Lake Conway here in central Arkansas. Imagine sitting there with a cold drink and a nice breeze coming off the water. Ah.

Enjoy the World Cup games on TV. I have to confess to being somewhat of a soccer novice, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the games, despite the U.S. team’s heartbreaking loss to Ghana. As I write this, the Netherlands and Slovakia are fighting for a place in the next round. I’m thoroughly impressed by the athleticism of the players — and amused by their theatrics. I find it funny that they will writhe on the ground in simulated agony when barely touched in an attempt to draw a penalty, yet when they’re really hurt — broken ribs, split lips, slashed legs or bloody noses — they’ll suck it up and keep playing. I can see why football (as the rest of the world calls it) is so popular all around the planet.

Sno-cones! Every year, as soon as the thermometer begins to rise, I start craving a cup of finely shaved ice flavored with syrup. Vendors in brightly-colored trailer-stands begin to appear in area parking lots, and I always have a hard time driving past without stopping. I had my first sno-cone of the season yesterday and it was delicious. The most difficult part is trying to decide between the dozens of flavors displayed on the menu.

Games. I love playing games with my family. Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Yahtzee, Phase 10, Uno, Canasta Caliente (Kerry and I turn that into a full-contact card game! No one else will play with us). My daughter and son-in-law introduced us to a new game during their Christmas visit — Settlers of Catan. That was a lot of fun. I can’t wait until they come home from Massachusetts for a visit in August and we can gather around the kitchen table again for an evening of board games and laughter.

Enjoy a good book. A blazing summer day is the perfect time to find a shady spot or a cool corner and escape into fantasy. Of course, cold winter days are also good for that. Let’s face it, any time is the right time for a good story.

Speaking of which — you were expecting this plug, right? — my new Silhouette Special Edition, THE DOCTOR’S UNDOING, will be available in stores in the coming week. This is the third book in the Doctors in Training series — Ron and Haley’s story — but if you missed the first two, don’t worry. Each book stands alone.

Wherever you are, whatever your weather, I hope you enjoy this last week of June.

Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited.

All rights reserved.

One of the fun questions I’m often asked when I speak to schoolchildren is, Do you draw the covers for your books?

I wish I were that talented an artist!

So, how do the artists hired by Harlequin/Silhouette know what to depict on the covers? They don’t have time to read the books first — often the cover art is in process before the book is even completed. So, the author has to somehow convey to the artist enough information that the cover fits the story, which isn’t easy. Usually, I find it less stressful to write the scene than to try to describe it.

For each category book, the author fills out an “art fact sheet.” We give a brief synopsis of the story, describe the characters as best we can envision them, and then suggest three scenes that might make a good cover. We tell the artist what the characters are wearing, what’s the mood and setting of the scene, any little details that bring our story to life. And I’m often amazed at how well the artist translates our words into pictures! I don’t see the covers until I receive my books because with the tight schedule of producing category romances there is little time for pre-approval on the author’s part. It’s always exciting for me to open the box from the publisher and see those new covers. No, the people on the books don’t always look exactly the way I imagined them, but even with as many covers as I’ve had, I’ve rarely been disappointed by the results.

Maybe sometimes there are picky little details I would change, being the control freak I am. For example, the cover above is for my July release, THE DOCTOR’S UNDOING. The hero’s white coat on the cover is too long for a medical student — med students wear thigh-length coats; after they graduate they switch to the knee-length coats he’s wearing in the drawing. My daughter will certainly point that out to me when she sees this cover — so I’ve preemptively let her know I’m aware of it. But that’s not really important. I was very pleased when I received my copies of the book and saw the cover; the people look very much as I pictured Ron and Haley and the setting really conveys the hospital atmosphere of the story.  I think it’s a great cover — and I hope you enjoy the book!

I must confess to a more serious quibble about one cover I had several years ago. The book was set in the South, as so many of my stories are, and the artist wanted to convey a Southern feel, so magnolia blossoms were used as a border. Unfortunately, the magnolia blossoms on the cover were growing on a vine! Obviously, the artist was not from the South. And yes, I heard from a few readers asking what I was thinking putting “magnolia vines” on the cover. I thought you might find it interesting to know the process of cover art for category romances — and how such glitches occasionally occur. (I still can’t explain how a friend ended up with a three-handed heroine on one of her covers many years ago, but that’s a different story — and a different publisher.) Yet somehow, with such little information, most covers are excellent and amazingly fitting for the stories they accompany.

I have to applaud the very talented artists employed by Harlequin/Silhouette for such consistently excellent artwork.

The winner of today’s drawing is Jessica Faulkingham of North Carolina. Congratulations, Jessica! I’ll get the book in the mail to you this week.

I’m finishing a new book this week and eye infections and other life annoyances have me running a few days behind, so I’ll post a new blog entry and the new contest details within the next few days. Please check back! In the meantime, if you want to be entered for the July 1 drawing (prize to be announced soon), send an email to me at gina.w@live.com by June 30. Click the Enter to Win! tab for official rules.

The morning news-and-features program I usually watch while I eat my oatmeal had a discussion today about Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500  (rock) songs of all time.  The new edition of the list will be released Friday, but they discussed the top five this morning, conceding that the choices would be hotly debated over water coolers, coffee cups and dinner tables. As for myself … I wouldn’t have put any of those songs into my personal top five, but I could see the argument for each of them being there.

I’ve mentioned before that music is a vital part of my life. The little songs my mother sang when I was a child. The hymns we sang in our little country church, and the  choruses our church youth group  performed for the congregation. The pop and rock songs that played from my transistor radio and stereo record player when I was a young teen, from the 8-track, cassette, CD and MP3 players as technology and I matured.

Most days I turn off the TV as soon as the morning program is over and turn on my music player in its stead. I write to music. Music plays in my car between home and the grocery store or the mall. Our children played piano and violin and guitar and tin whistle as they grew up, and all three sang in high school choir.  I miss hearing their practices and performances. Our son-in-law is also musical — he’s playing the guitar in the photo above. Music is one of the many common bonds that have drawn him and my daughter together.

Our middle child, Kerry (the one married to the guitarist), has often mentioned that one of her cherished memories of childhood is riding in the back seat of the car on late night trips home from some visit or vacation, dozing with her sister and brother and listening to the music playing from the car speakers while her dad and I talked quietly in the front seats. I can identify with that memory; hearing certain songs from the late 60s and early 70s can send me straight back in time to summer car trips with my own parents and three brothers, often to Branson, Missouri or Galveston, Texas. I cannot imagine a world without music, nor do I want to try.

As the program concluded this morning, the on-air personalities were asked to name their all-time favorite songs, and I found their choices interesting. They mentioned yesterday that they would be doing so, and I’ve thought about it on and off since, wondering what I would name as number one on my list of favorite songs. I have a favorite gospel song, How Great Thou Art, and a favorite Christmas song, O Holy Night (followed closely by the secular White Christmas), but favorite pop/rock song was harder to choose. There are so many, some with deeply personal meaning, some I simply love to hear or to sing in the shower. Some that evoke special memories, others that can bring me to tears.

I’ve decided to try to compile a list of my top 25 favorite pop/rock songs sometime, just to see what others think the list says about me. I can already name a few of the songs that will pop up — When Doves Cry, Stairway to Heaven, Old Time Rock and Roll, I’ve Done Enough Dying Today, Cherish, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I Still Burn, From Where You Are, The Dance … oops, that list is already growing. It would be somewhat easier for me to name my top 25 favorite bands/singers — there are so many wonderful songs! But what would be number one for me?

I think it would have to be In My Life by the Beatles (I was pleased to hear someone else name that one this morning, after I’d already chosen if for my own number one). I was just a little too young to be part of Beatlemania back in the day, nor do I listen to their music often now, but this song has always spoken to me, more so as I grow older. Every time it pops up on my work playlist — the newest of which includes 539 songs — I have to stop, close my eyes, and just let the memories and emotions flow.

What does this choice say about me? I think it illustrates that I’m sentimental, nostalgic and have a weakness for simple melodies and harmonies. What songs would be on your life’s soundtrack? Which would be your number one, and what does that say about you?

Until next time — may your days be filled with the music you love most.