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John McCain hopes you don’t remember where he was:

McCain birthday celebration during hurricance Katrina

For more than ten years, I was out of the black woman hair thang.  You know getting it done, perming, braiding, pressing, curling, etc.  But for the last five days I’ve been immersed in the hair game.  A few months ago after quitting the job, I decided I could finally have ethnic hair.

So off I went to get braids for the first time in 17 years.  And they were cute.  But like all styles, they grew out.  So after landing from NYC I started to cut out the extensions and started the tedious process of taking out hundreds of braids.  That took two full days.

Then there was a day of washing, then a day of pressing.  It brought back all those memories of sitting in the kitchen next to the stove while my mother pulled a fire heated comb through my hair.  Then two more days this week to get it braided again.

You can imagine that I’m not the least bit interested in anyone touching my hair again – for a long time.

I don’t know how you all do it – but after these few months of respite, I may be back to the short, short fro again.

My car is a middle-aged seven. While repairs don”t yet exceed my former car payments, the costs are creeping up. A thousand here for tires and brakes, several hundred times four to fix failing window motors . . . 

Yes, I”m ready for a new car. 

There’s more . . . .

You might guess that the book most referred to at the Romance Writer’s conference would be about sparking passion or spicing up sex scenes. In fact, the book mentioned in more workshops than any other was Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon.

The questions any writer should be able to answer about any main character should be what do they want, why do they want it, and what are the obstacles to getting it.

This book proves Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is the truest. When you think about these three things in reference to books you love, it opens up the mystery of good characterization.

There may be no magic bullet to writing, but this probably comes closest.

Pen names are a hallmark of the romance writing world. Let’s face it, awkward, eye-chart names do not make for appealing book covers.

After lots of discussion with fellow authors, the consensus is to pick a pseudonym, even before you publish, and use it – a lot.

There’s no reason, the argument goes, to not brand yourself immediately. Introduce yourself to everyone using that name and when your books get published, they’ll remember you. Avoid awkward re-introductions with ‘writing as’ under your name or in signatures.

It’s a great idea, and I ran with it. Life has taught me, where possible, DO NOT reinvent the wheel. So, I made up business cards and went to RWA nationals with that in mind. Here’s the hard part – answering to that other name, and remembering to introduce yourself by that name. It can make you feel downright schizophrenic at times.

Now, I have two pseudonyms. The one I picked and the one my husband picked. Life is all about making choices, so I chose to run with DH Vortigern’s. Even with the cards and the name tag (you should always have your own), I feel like a fraud. Any minute, I know someone’s going to say – hey that’s not who you are.

So if you see me and I don’t respond to my real name anymore, you know why.