Whatcha doing this weekend?

I"ll be road-trippin' with the girls to the San Diego Head to Toe Women's Expo on Friday, Nov. 10th. If you happen to be in town, you don't want to miss this expo (even if you can't come see me)! Starting Friday the 10th and running through Sunday the 12th, it's a day of pampering, shopping, cuisine and more, just for us girls.

But if you want to see me (hint hint!) I'll be on the Style Stage at 1:30 p.m. with a booksigning to follow.

And because I love you, I have twenty free passes. If you want a pair for you and your best gal pal, email me so I can get them in the mail.

For all the details go here.

How To Thrive in the Month of NaNoWriMo

It's National Novel Writing Month and participants have one goal and one goal only: to write 50,000 words before midnight of Nov. 30th. If you want my advice, here it is:

1. Write in the voice that God gave you. Forget about grammatically correct sentences that would please your seventh grade English teacher (it worked for Dalton Trumbo). Forget about writing the Great American Novel (there is no such thing). But how do you know what your own voice sounds like? Well if you had a really juicy bit of gossip, how would you write it in email?

2. It's not about writing about what will be good enough to sell; it's about getting under the skin of your characters and finding out what they'll do next. Trust me, the cool thing about being an unpublished author is that no one has any expectations. You don't have to worry about deadlines, what your agent or editor will think, orders and sales numbers. You have complete creative freedom. I'm grateful for my success and all the challenges that come with it. But I'm telling ya, enjoy the freedom while it lasts.

Then again, if you're Stephen King you can do whatever the hell you want.

3. Do not banish a new idea that comes out of left field. That's a sign that your characters are taking over the book and that is when it starts to get juicy. To read my personal experience, go here.

4. TiVo or video tape your favorite shows. You'll need something to get you through re-runs in December anyway.

5. Keep up the momentum. Writing can be like exercise: when you skip one workout, it takes a month to go back.

6. If you commute to work, carry a tape recorder or notebook to capture those bursts of inspiration. I wrote an estimated one-eighth of Hot Tamara in my reporter's notebook while working for the LA Times.

7. Remember NaNoWriMo's motto: quantity over quality! Just write. Don't go back and agonize over every word. Tell your inner editor and critic to shut up and let the storyteller in you thrive.

And she seemed like such a nice girl...

I tagged Sonia Singh last week thinking she had a blog, but alas, she doesn't. So she's now the very first Chica Lit guest blogger!


5 (Really REALLY) Interesting Things About Me
by Sonia Singh

1. When I was an infant I was dropped on my head. Thankfully, I suffered no lasting damage. Thankfully, I suffered no lasting damage. Wait. I’m getting a sense of déjà vu here.

2. I lived in Bombay, India for two years trying to break into the Indian film industry (Bollywood) as a screenwriter. Never mind that I didn’t have any contacts and couldn’t speak a word of Hindi to save my life. Seemed like a fun idea at the time. Although now I look back and wonder what possessed me to drop everything and move to the land of tigers and Taj Mahals. Maybe it had something to do with being dropped on my head?

3. I support the environment but also drive an SUV. I suppose the fact that I’m a walking contradiction could be due to my being dropped on the head as an infant, or perhaps because I live in the OC. The SUVs roam free around here like cattle.

4. When I was working as a bookseller at Borders Books & Music, I received a phone request to page a customer on a busy Saturday afternoon. The customer’s name? Hugh G. Reksion. [Sound it out] I paged the customer several times before my manager leapt across the information desk and grabbed the phone out of my hand. It was only then that I noticed the startled looks of customers. And yes, I do watch The Simpsons. What can I say? When you’ve been dropped on your head as an infant…

5. I dropped out of High School for three weeks my senior year. My parents were in Europe and I was alone except for an older cousin who would sleep over at night and leave for work very early. One morning I woke up and didn’t feel like going to school and since there was no one to make me go…Not surprisingly, I didn’t feel like going the next day either or the day after that. So, yes, I am a High School dropout. Any surprise? I was dropped on my head, okay?

Sonia's next release, Ghost, Interrupted is coming out January 2007. She is the author of Bollywood Confidential and Goddess for Hire. Her website is www.soniasingh.com.

In Honor of the Day of the Dead

I don't believe that life ends when we die. I think some of us stay behind to make sure our loved ones are okay; or poke back in to see what's going on. And certainly there are many other reasons why spirits linger but the point of this blog is to focus on the positive aspects of being a ghost because on the Day of the Dead, we remember our loved ones who are no longer a phone call away. I'd like to tell you about the ghost I grew up with.

Her name is Mary and she and her husband built my mom and dad's house after World War II. My parents were 20 years old when they bought it for $19,000 in 1973. Mom was more than six months pregnant with me when they moved in. Eventhough grass and weeds grew up through the floorboards and there were bullet holes through some of the walls – the previous tenants had a run in with the police – Mom said it felt like the house welcomed them.

As Mom and Dad settled into the house, they started hearing voices from the hallway. Dad would be out back and hear mom holler, “Mike!” He’d run inside only to find that she hadn’t called him, or that she wasn’t even home. One night Dad woke up from a sound sleep to see a woman standing at the foot of the bed. When he got up, she was gone.

When I was three, my mom found me talking in someone in her closet. I told her how I met the nicest lady whose name was Mary and who had a daughter named, Mary Anne. By that time my mom knew the story of the previous owners and my invisible friend wasn't my imagination.

One day Robert went to work and died of a massive heart attack. His widow, Mary, was stricken with grief. The neighbors told my mom that she would scream his name in the middle of the night. One morning her son found her dead from an overdose in the master bedroom.

The only encounter I can clearly remember of my nice lady friend is when my mom had to help our neighbor. (I think she fell down.) Mom locked me and my then baby brother in the master bedroom with the TV. A lady opened the door and told me that she could no longer visit with me. But she would always watch over us and protect us.

When I was in high school, our ghost started acting up by slamming doors, turning lights on and off and even touching us. So I did some research and found out where she was buried. We took flowers and there was a photo of her and her husband on the gravestone. The woman who came to me in the bedroom when I was a little girl, was the same woman in the photo.

There are lots of other stories I could tell you about Mary, but it would take all day and I can hear my Little Dude waking up from a nap.

Oh wait, there's one quick story about my Great Grandma. She died 21 years ago this past Saturday. One night when the Little Dude was really little, he had a tough time going to sleep and I was beyond exhausted. I remember trying to rock him to sleep but he wouldn't stop crying. Crying myself, I said, "Grandma, please help me." The room got really warm and just like that, the Little Dude settled down into a deep sleep. I know she was there with me that night and every now and then I can feel her with me; especially when the Little Dude is pushing my buttons and I'm holding onto my patience with both hands!

Now I really have to run but I like the celebrate Day of the Dead by remembering my loved and remembering they're always with me.