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I’ve mentioned before that I write to music. It’s part of my writing routine — I check my email, look at my social networking sites, make a cup of tea, and slip on my headphones, and then I’m ready to write. Sometimes I have a particular playlist for the current work in progress (WIP), but usually I just set my iTunes to randomly play from my music library and let the music flow.

When I’m into the story, I hardly notice the songs playing in my ears. I find myself humming along sometimes without even realizing what song is playing. Sometimes I’ll look at the list to see what songs I missed while I was too deeply into the story to pay attention to the music. It’s simply background for me, a way of putting myself into the creative zone.

Apparently, I’m more aware of the music than I sometimes realize. While I was writing yesterday afternoon, I suddenly found myself feeling very sad. Almost tearfully sad, which was odd because the scene I was writing wasn’t sad at all. I was actually quite satisfied with the way it was progressing. So what, I wondered, was triggering my depression?

I realized that the song I was hearing was Diamond Rio’s “You’re Gone.” I like that song, but it is rather sad. Just for curiosity, I glanced at the list to see the songs that had played before that one. And I began to laugh. These songs had played back-to-back without my full awareness of what I was hearing:

James Blunt’s “Carry You Home.” (listening to your heart beating for the last time)

David Cook’s “Permanent” ( a beautiful song written for his dying brother)

Lifehouse’s “From Where You Are” (one of my favorite songs, but it’s about missing someone who has died)

Diamond Rio’s “You’re Gone.”

No wonder I was so sad! As much as I love all those songs, that’s like the most depressing playlist ever. Without realizing it, I had been internalizing those sad songs while I was writing. I quickly made a playlist of as many happy songs as I could find in my library and spent the rest of the afternoon listening to that!

Music is so powerful, and the poetry of the lyrics can have such an impact on the listener. I’m a huge fan of those singers and songwriters who can evoke such strong emotions with their words and/or their voices. I strive to achieve that same result with the words I choose for my stories. Sometimes I want the reader to smile or laugh; other times I deliberately try to make the reader sad for my characters’ troubles — but I always write a happy ending to leave the reader uplifted and encouraged.

I’ll listen to my sad songs again. But maybe I’ll be a little more careful to intersperse them with some happy tunes in the future.

Happy Father’s Day to any dads who might be reading this — especially my own Daddy!

Don’t forget to enter the contest for the free book giveaway (for details, click the giveaway tab above). I’ll be drawing on July 1.

I am not a hot weather person. I love cool breezes. Autumn leaves. Falling snow. Hot tea by the fire.

Hard to believe I’ve never lived in any state but Arkansas, right? Arkansas — home of the gorgeous Ozark Mountains. Home of historical Hot Springs National Park, fascinating Eureka Springs, Little Rock’s museums and restaurants and thriving River Market district, beautiful lakes and tumbling rivers and the nation’s only keep-’em-if-you-find-’em diamond field. I love my state, but our summers … whew!

It’s only June 16 and the high today was 95 degrees F. Before the first snap of the next football season, we’ll see temperatures in the triple digits — we always do here. At just after 7 p.m. this evening, it’s still 91. It will be even hotter tomorrow. And with the humidity hovering somewhere around a zillion percent, it feels like the surface of the sun on my brick patio.

Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration. I know there are places that are a lot hotter. And maybe I wouldn’t really enjoy living in a place that sees snow in frequent feet, rather than our rare inches, though I would love spending more of my summers strolling on breezy beaches or sitting by a cool mountain lake. Instead, I’ll keep the air conditioner blowing and the overhead fan turning while I sip iced coffee and work on my next book. And occasionally, I’ll look at pictures I’ve taken of cool — literally — places I’ve visited, like the one above I snapped on a trip through Utah last year. One benefit of a vivid imagination is that I can look at that photo and picture myself instantly there again.

Don’t forget to sign up for the free book giveaway by sending an email to me at gina.w@live.com.

In the meantime — stay cool!

My husband and I accompanied our medical-resident daughter and her husband to their new home in New England last week. My husband drove a UHaul truck pulling a car trailer while daughter and son-in-law followed in their second car. We had a great time, ate lots of seafood, and enjoyed sightseeing along the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island even on one cool, rainy afternoon. It was, of course, difficult for John and me to board the plane coming home, leaving our middle child some 1400 miles away from home. Especially since our oldest daughter moved 2300 miles away to the Pacific Northwest last year for her own career training. For a family that has always been very close, very tightly-knit, it’s hard to be so scattered.

As often as I fuss about technology, it certainly makes it somewhat easier to live so far from my daughters. There was a time, not so long ago, when our communication would have been through letters that took days to arrive, or long-distance phone calls that would have to be carefully rationed because of high costs. Now, thanks to nationwide phone coverage on our mutual network, we can (and do) talk every day without worrying about how many minutes we’re using. Thanks to webcams, I could see my oldest daughter’s new haircut (and reassure her that it wasn’t as bad as she thought). Thanks to email, we can instantly send each other photos and notes and recipes or whatever we choose.

Depending on technology can have its downside, of course. Cell phones are notorious for dropping calls, and the internet goes down occasionally. We learned the hard way that depending on GPS directions without the backup of a map in the vehicle is not a good idea. I’ve always had a map close at hand, but forgot to take one on this trip. Had we had a map and a clue where we were going, we would not have sat for hours in traffic on the New Jersey turnpike in that 17′ UHaul pulling a pickup on a trailer. Not a good idea. And we wouldn’t have gotten slightly lost at detours in Nashville and Knoxville, nor ended up on a parkway intended for cars only in Connecticut (we got off that quickly enough — whew! — but the silly GPS kept trying to put us back on it). But the GPS got us to our destination eventually — and the communication lines have been open since we returned home, keeping us up-to-date as our “kids” settle in to their new home town.

On the whole, I suppose I’m a big fan of new technology — even when it intimidates me.

Don’t forget!

My newest book is on the shelves this month. It’s ALWAYS THE GROOMSMAN, a novella included in the FROM THIS DAY FORWARD anthology along with bestselling authors Candace Camp and Allison Leigh.

Contest update!

Don’t forget to enter the contest for an autographed copy of FROM THIS DAY FORWARD. To enter, send an email with your name to gina.w@live.com. The drawing will be held July 1. (Hint — because this is the first month of this new contest, if you enter now, your chances of winning are high!)

Just a reminder that my new anthology short story, ALWAYS THE GROOMSMAN, one of three stories in the anthology FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, will be on the shelves within the next few days (if it’s not already in your area). The stories are all connected and, in keeping with the year-long celebration of Harlequin’s 60th anniversary, all center around the celebration of the sixtieth wedding anniversary of a lovely couple, Claire and Jack Murphy. Claire and Jack’s romance begins this anthology, written by bestselling author Candace Camp, and set in 1949 (I loved the period details she incorporated into her story). My story is about Claire and Jack’s granddaughter, Rebecca, a wedding planner who is having trouble getting her own true love to the altar. And Allison Leigh wraps up the series with the story of Rebecca’s cousin, Nate, a man whose wounded soul can only be healed by the love of single mom Jordan Chelsey. We had a lot of fun collaborating on these stories, and I hope you’ll enjoy the results.

I’m trying something new beginning this month — a give-away contest, just for fun, for those of you who drop in on me here from time to time. Click the tab marked “Contest” for details. This could be a lot of fun. I hope you’ll enter for a chance to win.

Until next time — happy reading.

Occasionally, I feel the urge to reminisce about the changes that have taken place in my world since I sold my first book in 1986. I may have mentioned before that I wrote my first book on a small electric typewriter borrowed from my mother-in-law. I used carbon paper for my back-up copy. Whenever I needed to make a change, I either retyped the entire page or used correction fluid and hoped the correction fit into the same space. Needless to say, I learned to write without doing  a lot of drafts.

My first computer had a 20 mb hard-drive, a monochrome monitor (amber on black) and a very basic word processing program called Volkswriter. Being able to backspace and delete was truly a joy for me. I couldn’t imagine needing anything else. And then programs continued to develop, and I discovered cut and paste, search and replace, automatic formatting, spell check, word count — oh, my. (I’m currently using Word ’07. Oddly enough, my only complaint is that it sometimes wants to do too much for me!)

My first daisy-wheel printer required eight to twelve hours to print a manuscript. Yes, that’s right. I always scheduled a full day for printing and several days for the package to reach my editor’s desk. Now, I rarely print anything. I just hit “attach and send.” Moments later, my editor receives it. Lovely.

I was a bit late getting on-line. I wasn’t quite sure I needed email or the internet at first. How foolish I was! I honestly cannot imagine now how I wrote a book without having Google open on my desktop at all times.

It used to be that when I needed to do research, I had to drive to the library, turn to one of my own encyclopedia volumes, atlases, dictionaries or other research books, travel to a location, or make a few phone calls. Now, the information is at my fingertips. Whenever I need it. I still do all of the above, occasionally — I particularly enjoy the travel research — but it always amazes me how much information I can glean with only a few keystrokes.

Just within the past few days of writing, I’ve needed to know the duration of a flight from Little Rock to Dublin, the legal requirements for getting married in Scotland, random facts about several bacteria and the diseases they cause, and the approximate driving distance between Dublin and Dungarvan. A few minutes on-line, and I’m back into my story without having to even step away from my computer.  I wish I could say I’m guaranteed never to make another factual mistake, but I’m not that foolishly optimistic. I will say I always try to get my facts right, and the internet has made it so much easier!

The internet also makes it so much easier not to write. Today alone, I’ve also looked up several phone numbers for my husband, checked the entry price of a local comedy club for my son, searched Google maps for the route my daughter and her husband will take to move to the east coast in a few weeks — and made a list of several attractions I want to see when I visit them there. Social interaction websites, television discussion websites, writers’ chat groups, silly cat pictures, recipe sites, shopping sites, games, blogs — so much to see and do! All more fun than actually working. Being my own boss, I sometimes have to be very strict with myself about personal use of the internet during work hours. I don’t always listen.

Because I’ve met my writing goal for today and can play on the computer without guilt for a couple of hours, I’m off now to see what my on-line friends are saying about the American Idol finale. So, my friends, until the next time — happy Googling.