Megan Hart

I love seeing the covers for foreign editions (except when they steal someone else’s cover, that’s way not cool.)

This one is awful purty, though. It’s Stranger in French.

M

I was searching through some old files, and I found my original blurby type thing I wrote when I was considering writing the book that eventually became BROKEN.

I’m going to post it here so if you’re interested, you can see how something starts (and if you’ve read Broken, you know how it ends.) I haven’t edited for content, typos, nothing. This was what came out of my head and into the document.

Cheater –
There is a man who is incapable of being faithful. He’s known as The Cheater. He meets a woman on a park bench.They meet every week, the same bench, for years. They never share their names but they get to know each other very well. They talk about work, their lives. He’s always seeing someone new, she’s always single.They have a friendly, superficial relationship. One day he tells her he’s getting married. She congratulates him and says, “no more cheating?” – he’s confessed to her every time he starts to stray, when he does it, everything. He says nope, no cheating.The wedding plans continue. A few weeks before hand they meet on the park bench and she says, how’s it going, and he confesses, he’s thinking of cheating. She tells him she’s not surprised but counsels him against it. The next week he comes back, says – he can’t help it, he has to do it. He has to sleep with another woman before he gets married, he can’t stand it. Once more and then he’ll get married and he’ll never cheat again. She tells him it’s a mistake, he shouldn’t do it, and they have their first “fight.” A week later he comes back, says he did it, and it was awful. It was the worst, ever, he felt so guilty he confessed – and his fiancé forgave him! And he says he can’t marry her, he’ll only cheat on her again and again and again – she says, why do you think this is? Why do you cheat? Is it the sex? And he says he doesn’t know. She says the next time he feels like cheating he should come to her and she’ll give him what he needs.He’s shocked, they’ve never had that sort of relationship. She gives him her address. Sure enough, he shows up, she takes him in, but instead of making love to him, she just lays down with him and holds him, and says “isn’t this what you really want? Someone to hold you, for a change? Someone to make you feel loved?” and it’s like a revelation – yes,that’s what he wants. She tells him to go back to his fiancée and tell her what he wants. They meet again on the park bench, but things are different, now. He says he’s still getting married, she says good. He says…”doesn’t that bother you?” “why should it bother me?”She wishes him luck. “No more cheating, remember!” he says, no more cheating. The day of his wedding he calls it off, shows up at her door. She’s been crying or eating ice cream,and she opens the door to find him in his tux, soaking wet, a little drunk. He stumbles in. She says “don’t tell me you’re cheating already?” he tells her he called off the wedding.”Why?” “Because I love you. I’ve always loved you. For years. Every time I cheated with a woman, I wanted it to be you.” “That doesn’t make me feel better!” – or, he blames his cheating on her,says she’s the one he’s always wanted to be with. They make nuclear love and when it’s over, she holds him while they sleep. Cut to the park bench, where they meet again. They sit down. She says “who’s it with this time?” And he says “nobody, still only you.” And they share their lunch. ☺ The end

So…at it’s heart, it’s the same book. And yet what Broken became was vastly different. Different, the same. Beginning and end.

If you’re trying to write your first book, don’t be so caught up in what you think the book IS…just write. Let the book become what it will be.

M

Phew. Got my 20 pages done and guess what I LIKE THEM. WHEEEEEEE!

Favorite line of the day: “If I were famous for dangling my dingle I might not want anyone to notice me, either.”

Also, Beth Keryis giving away a copy of Deeper! Head on over to her blog to check that out. Thanks, Beth!

Hmm, what else? Well, if you look over in the sidebar, I’ve started to do some fun stuff on eHow.com and Squidoo. Why? Why not? I like writing articles and talking about stuff I like. I like reading about stuff other people like. If you head over and check out some of my articles, and you like what you see, please feel free to rate them. I’m told the better the articles are rated or the more people who recommend them, the higher they show up on searches or something like that. Which means, I guess, more people would read them?

Something else that’s just for fun: I put up a short story collection on Amazon.com for the Kindle. It’s called Skewed Universe, and really, these stories are NOT for the squeamish. They’re a little horror, a little romance (but dark romance, not happy), a little paranormal, a little just…well, if you like strange, skewed stuff, you might like to check it out. It’s only a dollar!

I didn’t get my nap and now it’s too late. I’m off to edit a Spice Brief and percolate tomorrow’s 20 pages on COLLIDE.

M

This is it. My first official COLLIDE post. I begin it today. My goal is twenty pages a day to knock this book out of the park. I’m really excited about this story, can you tell?

So, I have some coffee, I have my iTunes cranked, I’m wearing a sweatshirt because I’m cold, and I plan to write for three hours and then maybe…take a nap. Because I’m tired. Yes. And my coffee is caffeine free. *d’oh!*

I may be posting updates on Twitter hourly, but maybe not.

M

ps — listen to this today. I am!

Oh, it was so much fun. This was the third time I got to see him play live and it was the best. The venue was awesome — small and with great sound. He got to play for I dunno…over an hour? I guess? Which was very very nice, considering the last time we saw him he only had time for a few songs. Also, the trip to Philly is a much shorter and easier one than going to New York City. (Not that I don’t love NYC, but Philly’s much easier to get to.)

Now, please pardon me while I get a little misty eyed.

I’ve been listening to Jason’s music for…well, I’ve lost track, but at least a couple years. And I listen to it every day. I mean, like, literally, if I have music playing one of his songs comes up on shuffle. I have at least one of his songs on nearly every book playlist for every book I write. (His version of Hallelujah…so good. SO GOOD. If Three Months is ever made into a movie, I want that song playing in the final fifteen minutes.)

So anyway, I love his music, and I love seeing my favorite musicians playing live, so when I have the chance, it’s awesome.

But what made it better was not just the small, intimate venue where we were so close to the stage we could have felt the breeze when he blinked his eyes…it was the fact I was there with three of my very dear friends who love Jason’s music as much as I do. It was a road trip, but more than that. It was a good night with good friends, doing something and enjoying something we all really feel passionate about.

I seriously almost cried a few times. As I was listening to these songs I’ve heard a couple hundred times (iTunes tells me I’ve listened to Without You over 200 times and that’s not counting the times I’ve listened to it in the car or on my IPod) I was thinking…”when I’m 80 years old I’ll look back to this night and remember being here with my friends who I love, listening to songs that I love.”

Moments like that are powerful. When you’re thankful for everything you have in your life at that moment, and everything tastes so sweet. It’s good to be glad you’re alive and thankful and grateful for what you have and happy to be who you are.

Thanks to my friends Natalie, Misty and Vicki for sharing my passion and the road trip and the joy. And thanks to Jason for the songs.

Everyone, check him out on iTunes or his website. And check out my friends, too!
Natalie Damschroder
Misty Simon
Vicki Smith

Oh, and find some joy today.

M

Daughter, looking at poster of TEMPTED on my office wall: “Are there three people in that picture?”

Me: “Yes.”

Daughter: “She’s wearing a ring, is she supposed to be married?”

Me: “Yes.”

Daughter: “Which one is her husband?”

Me: “This one. The other one is her husband’s best friend.”

Daughter: “I bet that was awkward.”

Me: “They’re models, it’s their job.”

Daughter: “So, she was with her husband and his best friend?”

Me: “Yes.”

Daughter: “…have you ever done that?”

Me *headdesk* “That’s a pretty impertinent question, but no. I haven’t. Think about your dad’s friends and ask yourself if that’s something I would do.”

Daughter: *laughs*

daughter: “How do people with no legs go to the bathroom?”

me: “You are aware that your legs have nothing to do with going to the bathroom, right?”

daughter: “but if they don’t have any legs, they don’t have a place ‘between’ the legs, which is where you go to the bathroom from.”

me: “believe me, it works out all right.”

daughter: “what if they don’t have arms OR legs?”

me: “well, that might be more difficult and they probably would need help, and maybe they might need a diaper in case they have an accident in their pants.”

son: “…well, if they don’t have legs, they sure don’t need pants.”

I got this from my BFF Natalie’s blog.

This video makes me happy. It also makes me happy that people love their Macs.

M

It’s a strange, strange, thing, innit?

I mean, any monkey with a computer can have a blog. And these days, I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that monkeys have computers. And blogs.

I have a blog. I’m basically a monkey with a computer. I talk about what I want to write about and figure if someone likes it, great, if not…well, the world’s a vast and wondrous place, full of things to see and do, and if you don’t like what you see, move on. I mean, I’m not kicking puppies on here.

It seems the world is blogging or maybe it only feels that way because *I* blog and therefore I’m aware of blogs being created and people blogging; sort of like how the world becomes smaller when you become associated with something you like. Ride a Harley? Suddenly everywhere you look, there’s someone riding a hog.

It’s that way with blogs.

But really…
mostly…
much of the time…

Umm…who really cares about what’s on them?! I mean, like, literally, I’m laughing and shaking my head at the thought someone might care what I had for breakfast or what I’m doing today, or how I met my husband or…well, whatever.

And Twitter. Ohhh, don’t get me started on Twitter. And yet I tweet. I do. I do it!

AND I FUCKING LOVE IT.

Yes. I love to write on my blog and tweet and play around on Facebook and do all that stuff. I do. I really, really do.

I’m just another monkey with a computer, folks. That’s all I’m saying.

M