Behind The Words

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2012.

Love, Barbara :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

However you may be spending the holidays this year, I wish you a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.

Love, Barbara :)

Is It Okay To Burn Books?

I have always answered that question with an emphatic NO.

However, I recently came across a book that so appalled me that I threw it in the trash (the equivalent, I suppose, of burning it).  If this shocks you, let me explain.

A Beautiful Quote

We find inspirational words in all kinds of places, and sometimes a source can be most unexpected. I occasionally watch a television show called “CSI,” about police lab technicians in Las Vegas. Recently, in an episode I was watching on DVD, supervisor Gil Grissom entered the lab and asked technician Nick Stokes how he was coming along on the tree analysis. Nick said, “Nothing yet, but hope still bears fruit, so I am going to examine the tree rings next.”

Frequently Asked Questions

I receive a lot of delightful mail from readers, much of which usually contains at least one question about a specific book.  While I do write back with the answers, I thought I would post a list of the most frequently asked questions, in case any of you have been too shy to write.

Q: I have just finished reading DOMINA.  Did Samantha Hargrave really live? 

The Long-Lost Diary

  I was cleaning a closet last night and pulled out a dusty old box filled with memorabilia from my past – things I had not looked at in years.  I found a diary that I had written when I was fifteen.  It was summer, I lived in the San Fernando Valley and was attending Reseda High.
     The entries in the diary fascinated me.  So much drama!  So much angst and worrying about things that seem miniscule today but that, in that summer, were gigantic to me.  The pimples, the gossip, the ever-changing dynamics of the girlfriend sphere.  And did I really spend THAT much time by the phone waiting for Johnny to call? 

A Shared Dream

I had just finished my newest book, The Divining (a story inspired by Soul Flame) and I needed a few days of rest, so my husband and I went for a drive in the Mojave Desert.  It was one of those jaunts through pristine wilderness that makes one forget the stresses of daily life and steers one’s thoughts to higher levels and deeper peace.  We were the only car on the road beneath a golden sun.  We drove past Joshua trees, cacti, flowers, rolling sand dunes, and flat expanses that swept away to lavender mountains and impossible horizons.

Adultery or Golf?

I was chatting with my friend Vicki the other day and she told me she had run into a mutual friend named Bill at the country club. Since they both had time on their hands, they decided to “play around.”

I was speechless for a moment as I was not certain what she had just said. Had Vicki uttered two words, or three? Two words, to “play around,” meant cheating on a spouse. Three words, to “play a round,” meant playing a game of golf. I didn’t know how to respond. She kept talking about “playing around” with Bill, and I didn’t know if she had been, well, getting naughty with Bill, or if she had been hitting balls on the fairway with him.

The Ingenious Ways People Sit

Okay, this blog is actually more about my day at a PGA golf tournament than the ways people sit, but those ingenious contraptions were in fact a large part of my wide-eyed enjoyment of the event.

I had watched golf tournaments on TV, but nothing prepared me for the tremendous rush of attending one in person! The celebrity players, the TV cameras, photographers, the thousands of enthusiastic fans, all filling the air with tremendous energy and cheer. The beer and wine flows freely, and the pizza is the tastiest! And no matter how dense the crowd, one can always finagle a good spot from which to watch a smoking drive, or a fairway shot that winds up in the stratosphere.

Who Was Saint Patrick Really?

Having been born in England (yes, I came as an immigrant to these golden shores) I found the holiday that honors Ireland’s patron saint something of a surprise, considering that these colonies were no longer part of the British Commonwealth. Curious about the roots of this unique holiday (in which Americans don shamrocks and drink green beer) I did some research and was surprised to learn that the holiday is a very old one as it began in 1737 when The Irish Society of Boston organized the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the American colonies. In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, General George Washington had soldiers of Irish descent under his command and he allowed them to observe the holiday on March 17. From that day to this, Saint Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike.

My Important Socks . . .

We all do it. Procrastinate. Put things off until tomorrow. You have to do your 2010 tax return. It’s time for that annual medical check-up. The car is making a scary noise. You’re way overdue answering important emails. So what do you do? If you are like me, you sort your sock drawer. Or re-arrange your spice shelf in alphabetical order, or play one more level of that computer game you have been working on for months. Procrastination, I am told, is a shoulder devil that whispers in the ears of a whopping 95 percent of the population.

Happy Valentine's Day

I write about love in its many forms and what I always enjoy creating is the scene where my two main characters first meet. What are the circumstances? Is it by chance or carefully orchestrated? What is the setting, the climate? Is it crowded, noisy, quiet, romantic, terrifying? Will they love eachother or hate each other? Too many options! With this in mind, here's a poem that inspires me. 

The 365-Day Novel

First of all, I would like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year, with the sincere hope that you all enjoy health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year.

And speaking of which: I recently read a great Karen Lamb quote in which she said, "A year from now you will wish you had started today."

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday time with your families and friends.

In honor of my European readers, I have chosen a snowy wonderland to accompany my greeting. 

Love,
Barbara :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's Thanksgiving in two days: The busiest travel day in the United States where family and friends fly or drive all across the country to be with loved ones. 

I'd like to wish my American readers a Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope that you enjoy this special holiday. 

I am currently writing a sequel to SOUL FLAME. Soul Flame is a book I am asked about repeatedly, with the most common question being, "will you write a sequel and what happens to Ulrika"? I am almost finished with the manuscript and will keep you updated on my website.

A Splash of Magnificent Glory

As you know, I love to collect quotes that I find inspiring, motivating, and food for thought.  Words to enrich our lives and perhaps guide us in new and exciting directions.  I keep a special notebook and add words of wisdom as I come across them.  As I've been doing this for years, needless to say the notebook is becoming quite a fat little treasure trove.  I have shared a few of these gems in the three years that I have been writing this Blog, and decided that it was time to be generous once again.

Here are the latest from my treasury of interesting quotations:

Awesome!

I was in my favorite coffee shop the other day, ordering breakfast.  When I told my server I would like wheat toast, he smiled and said, "Awesome."

This gave me pause.  The word sounded familiar.  I realized I had been hearing it a lot lately.  In a popular clothing store, I was standing next to a teenage girl picking out a blouse.  "Mom, isn't this just awesome?"  I had to turn and look at the awesome blouse.  It was plain white with a few butterflies.  Where was the awesomeness?

Cats and Dogs

The great comedian, George Carlin, once noted that the reason humans think dogs have personalities and cats do not is because dogs have eyebrows while cats don't.  Although it is tempting to equate facial expressions with the possession of a personality, I cannot agree.  Cats have personalities and emotions.  They simply choose not to show them.

Another debate is over which is smarter, cats or dogs.  I don't know who said it, but I think it's true that you will never see eight cats pulling a sled through snow.

I Remember Patricia Neal

I was sad to hear of the passing of actress Patricia Neal (1926-2010). She was a fabulous and courageous lady whom I had the great honor of meeting once, years ago. One of the side benefits of being a published novelist is the chance to meet celebrities. A typical book and author luncheon, for example, will feature four authors: one who has written a non-fiction book; another who has written a children's book or coffee table book; a novelist; and someone (usually famous) who has written an autobiography. At these luncheons, which are usually fund raisers for charitable causes, as many as five hundred guests will come to hear a panel of authors speak, each for about twenty minutes. Over the years I have had the good fortune to attend many such events at which notable celebrities have appeared.

Making Love

The other night I was watching an old "I Love Lucy" episode, which was filmed in the 1950's, and Ethel and Fred Mertz are arguing.  Lucy comes in and says, "Don't you two ever stop fighting?"  And Ethel replies, "We're not fighting.  That's how Fred and I make love."

It sounded strange, because today the phrase "making love" refers to sexual intercourse.  When, I wondered, did the meaning change?

It reminded me of another time I had heard that phrase, and it was also from the time of the Fifties: In the beautiful and romantic 1957 film, "Sayonara," starring Marlon Brando and one of my all-time favorites.  There is a scene in which Ricardo Montalban, playing a Japanese character, says to the American leading lady, Patricia Owens, "Do not worry, Miss Webster, I am not necessarily making love to you."