The Wyrd Sisters

We're very pleased to announce that the Wyrd Sisters has chosen a new member, Jodi Dawson, a.k.a. Jodi Anderson. We've known Jodi for years and watched her world and career blossom. We're so glad she agreed to join us. Her enthusiam is infectious (in the good way, not the ::cough cough:: way) and she writes for Harlequin Romance. To learn more about her, visit her website at http://www.jodidawson.com Yeah Jodi!!

Barbi's shower was a lot of fun, though it was hard to cram thirty or so people into Deb Stover's house! Four teams designed wedding dresses, one each for the mother of the bride, mother of the groom, maid of honor, and a bridesmaid. The only catch is, they had to be made of toilet paper. Here are a couple of pics, of Barbi cutting the cake, and Deb in her TP gown. It isn't very flattering to her slim figure, but isn't the headband cute?

Pam Mc ... NOT the Pam with the comments on Lover Boy :-)




More shower pics at http://www.pammc.com/shower.htm

Okay, so I'm new at this. Tried to post a photo of the guilty mongrel, so you can all see she's well and guilty as charged....

Sheesh!

Trying again.... This young "lady" is hip-and-table-high, 45 pounds or so, very, very pedigreed standard poodle--which I own and adore because of allergies, and to whom--ahem--I am not allergic!--

Thanks for your notes! :)

Love,
Deb
http://www.debstover.com/, who is looking at Maggie with a raised eyebrow when she begs for a treat--I think she's had her month's quota already!


PS: Any suggestions about what I should put in Maggie's Christmas stocking...? :) Thanks!

This dog is just dandy. Trust me. She doesn't deserve it either. She didn't even have the decency to get a tummyache....

Her vet called yesterday to check up on her, still laughing. She also asked where I'd purchased the Chocolate Loverboy, because she wanted to order one as a gift. LOL!

I may have to order another one just to find out if he's anatomically correct. Or I can ask the vet.... ;-)


~Deb
http://www.debstover.com/

Hours later and she's quite healthy--yes, I called the vet. The least she could do is get a little guilty indigestion....

~Deb
http://www.debstover.com/

Okay, now that I have your attention....

I can tell you all about this, because I no longer have the very special item I'd ordered for Sunday's gift exchange for my chapter's <http://www.pprw.org> annual holiday party. He was perfect. I really shopped for this, because I wanted something they would really appreciate--men and chocolate. :) Perfect, I tell you! The best gift I've ever found for a PPRW gift exchange, with the possible exception of the life-sized Jean Luc....

My *very* tall standard poodle ate him.... ATE HIM! Okay, so she's female. Perhaps we can forgive her. Well...maybe. I'll take that under consideration. Right now, she's in the doghouse....

If chocolate is toxic to dogs, we'll soon find out!

Let me tell you about the Chocolate Loverboy. He was certainly decadent. :) On the back of the box, it said "He's Hard, But He Will Melt In Your Mouth!" Then it listed ten reasons why he's better than your last boyfriend.

1. Will listen patiently to everything you say.
2. His eyes are only for you.
3. Understands when you have a headache.
4. Made of the right stuff.
5. Wears his heart on his boxers.
6. He's hard when you want him to be. (blush)
7. He will stand by you.
8. If he even thinks about straying, just eat his legs.
9. Won't talk about sports.
10. He's fun to have around, but even more fun to get rid of. :-)

Here's a link to where I bought him.

http://www.pyramidcollection.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=P26704

I just came home from the grocery store--yes, even glamorous romance authors do these mundane chores--and found Loverboy's shipping box and wrapping paper on my office floor. No sign of the box the loverboy was in--including the cellophane--or any traces of chocolate on the floor. Not even a sliver....

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm now putting on my boots to slog through mud and snow at 7500 feet above sea level to see how much--if any--the mutt left in the backyard. She drags things through her dog door thinking we won't figure it out. Silly girl. She's 18 months old. I guess that makes her a young teen-ager in dog years. Right? Heh...

Can I ground her, take the car keys, and suspend her Internet access...? Yeah, right! Or hit her where it really counts and confiscate the cellphone?!?!?

So let us all mourn Chocolate Loverboy's passing--probably quite literally through poodle digestive tract--together, and hope I don't end up having to take this pedigreed young monster to the vet....

Before anyone asks, the photo on the box showed him wearing pink boxers with hearts on them, holding a rose in a strategic region. Guess! Only the poodle knows for sure if he was anatomically correct, and she ain't tellin'....

Did someone say I could relax now that my oldest daughter's wedding is history as of December 2nd <http://www.debstover.com/wedding.html>? Oh, I forgot--all the Wyrd Sisters write fiction.... :-)

And--trust me--I wish much of my life, including the above, was fiction....

Hope your holidays are going well, and that there's a real chocolate loverboy in your life. :)

~Deb
http://www.debstover.com/

Thanks to all my readers who've asked about my progress--or lack of--since my husband's death last year. I'm happy to report that I am now back in the saddle--so to speak. Sloooowly...

Those of you who receive ROMANTIC TIMES BOOKCLUB magazine may have seen a mention in the November 2006 issue about THE GIFT, which is my work in progress. My hope is to finish it this year. Fingers crossed...

Thanks for all your thoughtful notes, letters, cards, emails, etc. :)

My oldest daughter, Barbi, is getting married in December. Seems like just yesterday she was pushing a "Smurf" train around the house and trying to play "Let's Make a Deal" about every rule I could possibly create. While I wrote my first manuscript, she typed one on a toy typewriter at the other end of my desk....

I still need to burn that manuscript....

If you're interested in family photos--updated page!--there are some at http://www.debstover.com/. Just click on Photos, then select Deb's Family from the menu.

I hope you're having a wonderful autumn, wherever you live. It's my favorite time of year. A friend of mine and I recently took a four-wheel drive through the front range of the Rockies. Here's a link to some photos he took: http://tinyurl.com/fgloj

Angel is right--we all have interests that show up in our writing. My latest is beading. I've always loved crafts and hobbies, and those have changed over the years. I started out with crochet, decoupage, macrame, embroidery and liquid embroidery as a kid, then progressed to latch hook, needlepoint, miniatures, tole painting and counted cross stitch, plus others I can't remember at the moment.

I really like the detailed stuff for some reason (maybe the same reason I'm an engineer), but I got tired of how long it took me to make something in my last hobby, counted cross stitch. I have a wonderful cross stitched pic of a dragon around a castle, but it was so detailed that it took me years to do. So, I looked around for another craft and found beading.

Now I'm hooked. Beading is wonderful because I can make something in a hour...or a couple of months, depending on the method I use. Plus the concentration it requires puts me in a sort of zen meditative state and relaxes me. I love the wide variety of beading and I've tried a lot of it--stringing, netting, wire work, brick stitch, loom stitch, peyote stitch, etc. Lately, I've been hooked on peyote stitch because it makes such beautiful pictures--kind of like a pointillism painting. And, best of all, I can wear my creations for everyone to see.

Here are a couple of pics of things I've made from patterns:



The Santa and dragon are both patterns by Chris Manes from A Muse Ink. I'm also a big fan of patterns by fantasy author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough who does some wonderful fantasy and fairy tale patterns. And I find a bunch of cool patterns at Bead-Patterns.com, too. One of these days, I'm going to learn to design my own.

In the interim, beading is showing up in my stories. I'm working on a fantasy with a woman who can talk to gemstones and a mystery with a woman who, strangely enough, beads and lives in the same town I do. Combining beading and writing...the best of both worlds!

Do you have a favorite beading artist?

Pam

My DVR is purring its little electronic heart out since the new season began. I adore options! Like many of the Wyrd sisters, I tend toward sf--Eureka, Jericho, Lost, and Ghost Whisperer. My grittier side insists on the routine NCIS, The Unit, CSI:NY, CSI (original in LV), Bones, Numb3rs, and SVU. But not to forget the BBC shows: Murder City, Prime Suspect (reruns, I know but well done), Wire in the Blood (which my sniper husband finds too gory), and the quirky Life on Mars. I await the return of HEX and the frustrated lesbian ghost among others.
Not all my DVR time is spent on merely relishing the fiction of it. I also DVR politicl talk shows (Lou Dobbs in particular as well as FAce the Nation). And then, simply to revel in the superb writing, I have Studio 60!
So what's going on in TV programming that mirrors or masks your life?

Enjoy your new season picks!But don't forget to read. :)

Paula

It's fall premiere time and I miss that thick little TV Guide with all those lovely pages. The wavy magazine format just doesn't thrill me. Have I mentioned how much I HATE TV Guide's new format? That said, I love the fall premiere time and especially love this year's because of all the great new and returning shows.

But why, oh why, I moan, does HOUSE, NCIS and EUREKA have to be on at the same time? I wasn't home last night and had the TiVO set to record HOUSE and miss NCIS. I know I can pick up EUREKA on the second SciFi feed, but someone hasn't told TiVO that SciFi's insipid wrestling program goes long and two weeks in a row I've missed the last pivotal scenes in EUREKA. Sure, I know there's another showing on 10/3 but that's a long time from now. AARGGHHH!! At least I can catch a small version of last night's NCIS on InnerTube.

As to new shows, man, oh man, but was HEROES great. I wasn't sure what to expect. The production honchos are from CROSSING JORDAN which came out of the blocks as a pretty formula show--stereotypic characters, one-dimensional relationships, but the show has ripened into having some definite form-- good actors reaching beyond the material and finding additional dimensions. More continuity. And of course, the addition of Jerry O'Connell as Woody which IMHO, saved the show. But HEROES has more of a Lindehof/Abrahms vibe--rich characters, small touches that will likely become big clues, multiple storylines that are destined to converge. What a wonderful pilot. Long may it reign!


My immediate future in TV watching plans includes the upcoming SMALLVILLE season premiere, catching IN THE LINE OF DUTY: Blaze of Glory which is a Bruce Campbell vehicle I've never caught yet, (Bruce is on my TiVO wish list not to mention my Christmas list.) and the second season premiere of DOCTOR WHO (I loved Eccleston but am willing to fall for Tennant) I'm incensed that MEDIUM is being held for a mid-seaon premiere. NBC! Get your head out of your collective butts. HEROES and MEDIUM would hold any night of the week as a two hour solid block of Must See TV time.

At least with TiVO, I can start creating my own perfect week of TV. Well, I have to get back to NCIS which is playing on another window. I might have liked it better on the big screen, but this small screen version is pretty clean. Later! Laura

Being a Wyrd Sister came later for me. I've known everyone for years but didn't actually join the group until several years after the group formed. Partially because I didn't have the time in my life and partially because they all have such strong, wonderful personalities. I had to discover me and my writing a bit more before I joined. Now, though I find it's a great place to be.

We all have our interests beyond our writing that show up in writing, or at least influence it. I've had transient interests in my life, but the one constant I have is music. Country in particular at this point in time, but I've always listened to music. I'm giving my age away, I'm sure when I say my first favorite song was A HORSE WITH NO NAME by America. Still have the old 45 around here, and even play it! Less so now that I have my IPOD and am collecting those old tunes.

Yes, I listen to music while I write and it has to have words. I'm weird that way. If I listen to instrumentals or classical, I catch myself making up words for it. Not good when I'm trying to finish a manuscript. While the song writing process fascinates me, it's not something I'll ever be able to do. I'll just sit back and admire those who can do it.

My current release, RAGING SPIRITS was written to a lot of Montgomery Gentry and Keith Urban. An odd mix in a way, but it fit the mood for me and hopefully for the book.

Angel Smits

All right, I know the historical western romance novel isn't exactly the "wyrd stuff", but it has become the scarce stuff. Few western romances are being published today because, according to publishers, they just don't sell. If that's true, then why am I hearing from more and more readers that they love the westerns and why aren't there more out there?

So, what do you as readers think? Do you stick to one type of romance or do you read a little of everything? Is there room for westerns among the romantic suspense, Regency, paranormal, erotica, et al? Enquiring minds want to know. ;)



Posted by Maureen

Maureen McKade left town in June 2005 to move to browner pastures, so we decided to give her a farewell party. Since she writes historical, it seemed appropriate to have a party at Mary Ellen's Victorian Tea where we all dressed up in costume. So, here are 7 of the 8 of us (Von lives in a different state so didn't attend):




Top row, left to right: Karen Fox, Deb Stover, Angel Smits, and Paula Gill
Bottom row, left to right: Maureen McKade, Laura Hayden, and Pam McCutcheon

Posted by Pam McCutcheon (yes, the one who looks like a Madam in the photo)

Laura Hayden here again, asking, "What's on Your TiVO?" Summertime can be a pain to the dedicated TV watcher, but this summer, USANetwork and SciFi have lifted me from the doldrums of summer reruns with some pretty good new shows. Of course, STARGATE SG-1 and STARGATE ATLANTIS are all new episodes, including the eclectic 200th episode of SG-1 featuring a follow-up of "Wormhole: Extreme," the 100th episode. The vignettes were fun, albeit somewhat disjointed. My favorite vignette was the FARSCAPE one. I read that Ben Browder was scheduled to reprise his role as Crichton, but that at the last minute, he and Michael Shanks cooked up a role switch, proving Vala's theory that humans do have a limited but interesting gene pool. My least favorite vignette was the over-long "Thunderbirds" marionette parody. Its only saving grace was the vocal apperance of Don S. Davis and the whole "no-strings" gag. We needed more General Jack O'Neill, but who doesn't?

Other new shows I'm liking are EUREKA and PSYCH. I'd worried that EUREKA was going to be a one-note gadget show, but I've been very pleased with the rich characterizations and some really great guest casting. Any show that has included Maury Chaykin, Saul Rubinak, and Tamlyn Tomita has great potential. (Maury and Saul both played key guest roles on SG-1, too!) I think Joe Morton is fantastic and am wondering why Matt Frewer has been less pivotal that I expected. (Max Headroom--pushed to the back of a show? I think not!)


PSYCH is starting to wear a little thin because Shawn, funny as he is, is growing less sympathetic, despite his attempts to please his father. I'm still willing to give it more time, especially with the upcoming science fiction con episode upcoming. (I ran into George Takei once at a con-- literally stepped out of my hotel room and plowed right into him--my face BOOM! into his chest. He was quite the gentleman, making sure I hadn't been hurt. Nice guy.) One thing I want to point out: look for the instances of green in the show. It's a theme color and you'll see it in the most interesting places--costumes, sets, etc. I'm also getting a kick out of watching the Chief get bigger and bigger in her pregnancy. Nice touch.


What else is on my TiVO? I'm catching up with VERONICA MARS because it was recommended to me by another author who is as crazy about TV as I am. (Thanks, Bob. You're right, it's good.) I'm also catching up with SMALLVILLE and BONES (love that David Boreanaz, as well as viewing new episodes of THE 4400 and DEAD ZONE. I always catch two hours of ANGEL every weeknight and WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? (US) whenever possible. My savied shows include the last episode of ENTERPRISE (sniff) and the season finale of DOCTOR WHO (Yeah SciFI for picking up season two!)

And that's what's on my TiVO. What about yours?

My introduction to the Wyrd Sisters began in 1995 on a flight to Honolulu where I was going to attend the Romance Writers of America National Conference. I was a brand new writer whose very first baby (aka manuscript) was a finalist in the Golden Heart, a contest for unpublished writers in RWA. The conference and awards ceremony were being held in Honolulu that year so I made the sacrifice of flying down there from Omaha where my military husband and I were living at the time.

I met Pam McCutcheon first as we were literally running to catch our connecting flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Fortunately we both made it aboard and Pam introduced me to Laura Hayden during that long flight. Unfortunately, I didn't win the Golden Heart, but I did, however, sell my first book.

Two years later, my husband was transferred to Colorado Springs and I again ran into Pam and Laura when I attended the Pikes Peak Romance Writers group and met the other Wyrd Sisters. Since I was looking for a critique group and they were looking for another critiquer, we decided to check each other out even though I didn't write the "wyrd" stuff--my bailwick was historical western romances. But it turned out we hit it off and I was adopted into their group. However, I earned my wings as a Wyrd when I wrote a time travel book titled "At Midnight" as part of a series, of which five of the Wyrd Sisters each wrote one of the books.

And that's my tale of becoming a Wyrd...

Maureen McKade

Who are the Wyrd Sisters? (Entry Link)

Someone has to say something...
Who are these people and why are they here? Me? I live online. When I answer marketing surveys (I love those) and they ask "How many hours do you spend online other than email?", my answer is usually 60 hours. I think it's a low estimate.

As the co-owner of two companies that exist because of the Internet and my incessant need to have the net available when writing, I'm online almost 16 hours a day.

Whoever created the wireless network, bless you, I say.

Now onto more pressing issues. Television. Yeah, that's my passion. So my running bit must be What's on Your TiVO Last night I recorded STARGATE SG-1 (great episode!), STARGATE: ATLANTIS (love Connor Trinneer, even when Wraith-like, and new favorite, PSYCH. USANetwork has done a bang-up job of promoting their three odd detective shows, PSYSCH, MONK and THE DEAD ZONE, all of which I really enjoy. PSYCH is fun, but I do get weirded out by Corbin Bernsen's toup.

Laura Hayden

Who are these wyrd people anyway? The Wyrd Sisters Critique Group (not to be confused with the musical group with the same name) started as a group of writers who were brought together by a common goal: a passion for writing. As we worked together to hone our craft, we formed a strong friendship as well.

Then came the search for a name. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, wyrd is an Old English word meaning fate or destiny. It can also mean weird and is pronounced the same way. So, we called ourselves the Wyrd Sisters because most of us have written the "weird stuff" (time travel, fantasy, paranormal, futuristic) at one time or another and we consider it our wyrd, or our destiny, to write.

The Wyrd Sisters are known for this kind of innovative romantic fiction as well as the "normal stuff," too. But whether we season our romances with a pinch of paranormal, a generous helping of humor, a dash of action, or a dollop of suspense, the one thing you can be sure of is a good read!

The Wyrd Sisters are:

Karen Fox
Paula Gill
Laura Hayden aka Laura Kenner
Von Jocks aka Yvonne Jocks aka Evelyn Vaughn
Pam McCutcheon aka Pamela Luzier
Maureen McKade aka Maura McKenzie
Angel Smits
Deb Stover

Pam McCutcheon