I firmly believe this.

I’ve written a lot of books over the years. Some that never sold to a publishing houses, some that I never sent to publishing houses, and, well, yeah, some that have sold, too.  🙂  I like to think that, regardless of the final outcome with those manuscripts, I learned something with every story that I wrote. I learned about character development. Conflict. Pacing.  Each story taught me something.

I know some folks who’ve said they want to try their hand at writing, but they don’t want to go to the “trouble” of writing a book that won’t sell.  Well, here’s something else I’ve learned–there are no guarantees in the publishing business.  You could write a fabulous book…and it may, indeed, not sell.

But is that book a wasted effort?  No, I don’t think it is.  If you enjoy the writing process, if you’re writing and creating because that is what you love to do–then the process itself can be a reward.  And then there’s the whole business I mentioned previously about learning something with each book…

Today, I’m blogging about the writing bug over at the Brava Blog.

Have you been bitten?

Today, Larissa Ione is guest blogging over at The Bradford Bunch. I love Larissa’s work.

And the lady is one busy writer. She’s got contemporary stories and paranormals available under her name, AND she writes as Sydney Croft (with her writing partner Stephanie Tyler). I recently read “Sydney’s” latest release-–Unleashing the Storm–what a wonderful (and hot!) read.

If you get a chance, check out her post (and her books!).

Sorry I’ve been absent lately–the pollen has struck me hard and I’ve got allergies from hell going on right now.  (My fault totally–I had the brilliant idea to go outside and do yard work on Thursday even though EVERYTHING was covered in a nice yellow from the pollen.)  Grr.  Should be getting back to normal soon and I’ll be back with some writing craft posts.

I’ve long known this. Heck, I think we all know this. One of the reasons I love romance novels so much–I’m always guaranteed a happy ending. (Something that isn’t always present in real-life.)

I’ve been doing research again for a book. Okay, I started doing research–checking out Angola prison in Louisiana, once called the “Bloodiest Prison in the U.S.”–because the research was related to a proposal I was completing. But then…the work on Angola led me to another idea. An idea for much, much later, but an idea I couldn’t shake. So I did more research.

Last night at 11 p.m., I found myself on the couch, eyes glued to the TV set as I watched Lockup. Okay, if you’ve never seen Lockup before (on MSNBC), well, it’s gritty, it’s raw, it’s gory, it’s frightening, and it will make you never, ever want to be locked inside a prison. My husband passed by as I was watching the show.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Research.” A prisoner had just confessed that he killed his mother and ate her brains. “Don’t watch,” I warned, meaning it. “You’ll get sucked in.”

Five minutes later, he was still standing over my shoulders, his mouth hanging open.

Scary stuff–scarier even than the things I imagine for some of my serial killers.