By Robin 'Red Hot' Kaye
I spent all day yesterday sitting at Starbucks with my
critique partners, Laura Becraft and Deborah Villegas plotting my next book.
I’m so thankful for these two women—they’re my best friends, they're the closest of sisters who adopted me and made me one of them, they're my support group,
my bullsh*t meters, and a veritable laugh factory. They are also talented
writers and fabulous plotting and critique partners. I’ve written my last five novels and one
novella with their help, and I can’t imagine how I managed to write the first
three books without them.
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| Deborah and Laura at one of our favorite New York haunts--the St. Andrews Restaurant and Bar. |
Yesterday they took my blue Monday, the most depressing day
of the year, and made it one filled with joy and laughter. My blue Monday was especially
blue because my college boy flew the coop that morning and winged his way back
to Boise State for classes tomorrow. Somehow they still managed to make me
laugh so hard I was thankful I always do my Kegel exercises—as were the
Starbucks employees, I’m sure!
Yes, Laura, Deborah, and I are those weird women cackling at the window table in
Starbucks. It is ‘our’ table, and thanks to my Deborah—the shy and reserved one—we
were able to get the nice man who was using it to move. I offered to pay him
off in coffee, but he kindly refused and said he’d seen us there so often, always
at our table, he wouldn’t dream of messing with our mojo. And mojo is exactly what
we have. When we work together we feed each other more than just coffee and iced
tea lemonades. We call each other on taking the easy way out—and yes, we’ve all
been known to try to get away with it, we force each other to dig deeper, to
write fresher, work harder, and we help each other finish our books.
Yesterday we plotted an incredible story for my third Bad
Boys of Red Hook book and now all I have to do is write the synopsis—a thing
that puts the fear of God into most writers—and do it justice. I’m not worried—believe
me, they’ll tell me if I don’t make the grade.
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4 comments:
Great fun! It was like I was at Sbux with you. Keep up the great work.
Thanks, Gregory! We'll see how the synopsis turns out. I wish you were at Starbucks with us, it would have been even more fun!
I tried to tell the dogs to help me plot- they gave me nothing but give-me-cookies eyes. Guess I need to find a couple of furless buddies. Your friends sound awesome. Keep up the mojo.
Teresa~Yeah, dogs are no help. Actually, mine are everything but--at least my dogs. My critique partners are amazing though. If you have a critique group that works, protect it with your life. It might take some time to get a good mix that works well together, but the trial and error is worth it in the end. Good luck in finding furless buddies :)
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