Pam's Blog

April was the month for everything to break and have to be repaired at our house. The weather outside was acting wacky and stuff inside was, too. I’m hoping May will be better. (So far, my dishwasher has healed itself so we are on the right track.)

Nailing down the details on Dylan’s Cause has been a lot of fun. We sent it off and are expecting a proof copy to arrive on our doorstep any day now. We are on schedule for the June 1^st deadline and that makes me very happy.

Another thing making me happy these days is exercising! Yes me! (All who know me just gave a collective gasp.) My dear hubby answered my request for a treadmill (I had one years ago that finally wore out—we’d gotten it used and it didn’t hold up well for long) and I had assured him I’d use it, just as I had used the old one, so full of commitment and excitement, I welcomed the new beast into our home. Even though it has not worked completely right from day one, we have managed to be able to walk and jog on it every day (we just cannot incline and one of the speakers doesn’t work… remember my rant about April stuff not working??) and I am so stinking proud of myself. Trying to get it fixed has been one of my largest recent frustrations and trials, but I am just glad I can still use it to a certain level right now with only the occasional rattle. I am feeling so much better: more stamina, more energy, my flab is turning to muscle and I can walk across a room now without running out of steam. I have found my groove, my “zone” in my work-outs and I am loving it so much. I think if more people did this sort of thing, the sales of anti-depressants would drastically decline.

As for writing, I have been working on Playing with Fire (the third in the Adison Taylor-Hall series that began with Boys with Cars) and have been taking this one slow. No sense killing myself to put them out quickly as I want to release them one at a time anyway. I am about halfway through and I’m very happy with how it is turning out. I always try to have a point or a message of some sort in my books, and I think you will all be happy with the underlying theme in this one. We learn more about our friend Adi and some of her unique personality traits. The more I write her, the more I love her, and I hope you all feel the same.

Please continue to check in at the website (www.pamelaswyers.com) and see what’s new. I appreciate your support and that you are telling your friends and passing my books around! I am enjoying seeing them move around in the library systems as well.

Here’s to a great spring! Enjoy a good Swyers book by the pool!

Love to all!! 

Pamela Swyers

Spring has finally sprung, I suppose. I thought it’d never. Flowers are blooming (as are my allergies) but I love it anyway. We had a long, hard winter and I am thrilled for it to be over.

Putting the finishing formatting touches on Dylan’s Cause (due out around June 1st). Hope to have a review back in time to put a quote on the cover. Back to writing the third “Adison Taylor-Hall” novel entitled Playing with Fire. Soon it will be time to release Rebound in paperback (for any of you hold-outs).

Enjoying good sales figures, good weather and good times. Come out to Books for Less in Buford (off Highway 20) on the 17th and shake my hand! Thanks to all of you who have purchased my books either for yourself or as a gift for someone else.

Congratulations to Natasha Beganovic and Elizabeth Brooks for winning a first-edition copy of Dylan’s Cause!

Happy Spring to all!

Pam Swyers

Here’s a typical day in the life of Pammy; writer extraordinaire. (Realize I have combined and averaged things out here.)

Wake up between 7:30 and 9:00 a.m. Groggy. Grouchy. Grumpy. Need coffee.

Somehow manage to make coffee and wait impatiently for it to be done, (side note: watch coffee-makers never finish). Grab a mug and plop on the sofa and not watch the news for about thirty minutes as the caffeine kicks in.

If I have pre-determined and scheduled this day to be a “writing day” then I grab a fresh mug of coffee and a glass of ice water and head up to the office.

Somewhere between 8:00 and 9:30-ish I wake up the lap-top. Some days this is easier than others and involves less cursing.

Check Facebook and emails. (The time to do this varies from two minutes to two hours.)

Pull up current writing project and peruse “To-Do List”. (I always make notes before I end one day–for the next day, to help my addled brain.)

Think about writing.

Clean off my desk.

Go pee for the fifth time.

Need more drink.Get more drink.

Stare at computer for a few minutes, as the inspiration ramps up in my head and my over-active creative imagination kicks in.

Actually write for an hour and a half to two hours.

Go back and re-read what I’ve written. Make some edits. Save.

Lunch time!

11:30 or 12:00-ish to 1:00-ish. Eat more than I should. More coffee. Scrounge around cabinets and drawers for chocolate. Don’t find any, because I know better than to keep it in the house. Get mad at myself for not buying chocolate and keeping it in the house.

After lunch, I go back to writing, still pouting about the lack of chocolate. Write for another hour and a half. Finally forgive myself, and realize that no chocolate is actually best.

2:00-ish, time for tea. Iced or hot depending on my mood, the weather. Perhaps a naturally decaffeinated product if I am too wired.

Back upstairs for more writing. Write for ten minutes then realize I promised myself yesterday that I would scrub the toilets. Reluctantly scrub a toilet or two.

Check Facebook and emails again. (Again, time varies.) Make up witty replies, or not, depending on my mood.

Dust my desk.

Write for another hour.

Put something rockin’ on my iTunes and get up and dance around a bit to get the blood flow going.

Text back and forth with my daughter for twenty minutes about absolutely nothing.

Go downstairs again, thinking that I MUST have a stash of chocolate somewhere. Confirmation that I do not. Swear words.

By four p.m. I am (understandably) exhausted and have to quit for the day.

Downstairs for a little TV, think about dinner. Maybe make dinner, maybe not. Maybe hubby comes home and asks what’s for dinner and I don’t know. Maybe hubby makes dinner.

Eventually we eat something.

More TV, then early to bed…. Lots of work to be done the next day!

It’s a tough life, but I make the sacrifice.

Hope everyone had a Happy New year.

I feel like this year will be filled with change, possibilities, hope, and opportunity. Hard work is not only its own reward, but I believe it always pays off in the end. Call it Karma, call it the law of sowing and reaping, call it what you will. I still believe in the math: hard work + persistence=reward.

We’ve all heard stories of lightning bolts striking and lottery winning, but for most of us “real” folks, good old-fashioned hard work is the only thing that will truly and eventually bring success. I plan to stick with it and get that nose back to the grindstone, and I hope you plan to do the same this year.

Rebound (an Atlanta-based love story) is on its way to the press this week! I will be doing a book-signing in February to celebrate its “birth” and hope to see tons of you there! As soon as the date and time are nailed, I’ll post the info everywhere.

I’m proud of Matt Chauta’s work in graphic/cover design and know that all my future books are being taken to the next level, due at least in part to his creative genius. If you have need of graphic design of any kind, he is the MAN!

Please look for Rebound around the end of this month. Order at my site, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble online, or at several bookstores. In this love-story, Samantha Wells (a Buckhead barista) gets dumped, then meets the brother of a co-worker who was also recently dumped. The two enter in to a pact; they will be dates for each other for a year–strictly platonic. Yeah… right. Check it out and see how it ends.

Thanks to my readers and fans! And keep that nose to the grindstone!

Pam

Final editing has commenced for Rebound and I am so excited for it to be in print! Right now it looks like the end of January. I will be organizing a “meet & greet” and book-signing in late January or early February. I will post the date, time and location as soon as that is nailed down.

Not long after Rebound’s release, the first in the fantasy series “The Tryta Chronicles: Dylan’s Cause” will come out (should be before spring).

Currently (along with nailing down these details on these books) I am “plotting” the third in the Adison Taylor series (to follow Boys with Cars and Married with Children). This will be my early 2010 writing focus.

I have joined some online discussion groups with other writers and I’m really enjoying hearing about what other writers are going through… we do have a lot in common. The writing process is so enjoyable, but like any “job”, it has its downside. Marketing and promo, edits and re-writes, etc (ad nauseum). These are the not-so-fun parts for me and a lot of other writers. If I had my way, I’d write a manuscript and send it off and that’d be the end of that (as far as my involvement went) but that just isn’t realistic… at least not yet. So I press on… doing my “due diligence” and working through the less enjoyable parts so that I can get back to the fun stuff.

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to those who bought my books in 2009 and I hope you will hang with me in 2010 cuz there is SO much more to come! A mystery novel, a love story, a fantasy series… something for everyone!

Here’s to the best year ever for all of us! (Virtual champagne toast!)

God Bless and Happy New Year!

Pamela Swyers

I’m so excited about partnering with Books for Less, in order to get my books out and into people’s hands. I encourage you all to go there; it’s an awesome book store with a really cool coffee shop. They are being very generous and I wish to pay them back any way I can. They’re having a big sale this weekend, so please stop by and “give ‘em the business”! I appreciate any purchases of Boys with Cars while you’re there.

Dacula library has “Boys” as well, so you can go into any Gwinnett County library and request the book. Gradually, I’ll get them all out there, but we’ve taken that first step.

My mind is a-whirl with so many different projects going at once:
“Married with Children” is being printed now (the newer, larger edition) and will be on the shelves and available on-line soon, likely by the end of the month.
“Rebound” is being edited and should be in print early 2010.
“Designs on Love” is written and in the queue to be edited.
“The Tryta Chronicles: Dylan’s Cause” is written and waiting to print.
“The Tryta Chronicles, Book Two: Dylan’s Muse” is almost done (currently writing… )
I plan to do a third in the Adison Taylor series (“Boys” and “Married”) as well as a third in the “Tryta Chronicles” series.

I’m trying to slow things down a bit and just enjoy my holiday time, and I’m thrilled my kids will all be with me on Thanksgiving.

2010 promises to be a big year and I’m expecting great things to come.

I encourage anyone who has a passion, to follow that passion and pursue your dreams. No matter how busy I get with this stuff, I never “tire” of it, because it’s what I LOVE doing. I hope you all have such things in your life; be they hobbies or full-time careers. I am so thankful to be able to chase my dreams, and have the support of such loving family and friends.

Have a great Thanksgiving Day!
Pam

Fall is such a beautiful and majestic time of year.Every fall I drive those around me crazy by gaping at and commenting on every new leaf I see. The colors always simply boggle my mind. I’m like a kid who just discovered crayons… flabbergasted.

I encourage you to stop and gape some yourself… (this is the fall version of “stopping to smell the roses”). You will find colors you never dreamed of or imagined, intricately woven into these leaf canvases. I could stare for hours.

Fall always makes me feel a little melancholy, too. Not sure why, but it does. I press on with the writing though, finding fall to be an awesome time to be snuggled inside with a cup of coffee, looking outside at the trees and letting the “muse” flow.

I am currently writing my seventh book and don’t feel like slowing down anytime soon. Finding your passion is something that is hard to stop or contain, and why would you want to?

I hope to have a few more of my books in print by January or February and in 2010 we are really pressing forward on marketing, and will be doing our best to get the books out into your local stores.

I hope fall finds you gaping at colors as well as pursuing your passion.

God Bless!

Is it attainable? Do I even want it? Or is it—as modern-day lyricists suggest—simply suicide? Are we grasping over that which will ultimately destroy us?

What is it to me: Money in the bank? Recognition? Awards? Or could it be simply living out the life I was created to live while doing that which I was created to do (or simply being who I was created to be?)

Viewing the vast ocean in all its majesty makes me feel small and wonder what it can possibly all mean anyway—in the grand scheme. Who is watching and who do I want to watch and why? If I tire of myself, why would I want to subject others to that monotony?

Finding a voice—having a voice, maybe that’s it. Let your view be heard and judged by all and to hell with the consequences. This is definitely not the road less traveled but rather a well-worn path strewn with beer bottles, fast-food trash, Jerry Springer lifestyles and deep, real sorrow. We stay there, we make camp. Do I really want to live on the side of that road?

We are here and therefore there must be meaning, there has to be meaning. I understand more every day why people drink, drug, kill the ever-expanding meaningless-ness of life. If one does not believe in Grand Design then truly, what is the point? Stay on the bar stool and numb yourself; throw it all away.

I contemplate this: “Live a quiet life, mind your bidness and work with your hands.” Wow. This could end all war. Add to that the reaching out and serving of others and we have something truly powerful… so simple and so powerful. Why do we have to complicate all things?

Is love truly so un-attainable? Not fairy-tale love but true over-powering, mind-boggling, walk-through-cut-glass-into-a-vat-of alcohol-for-another kind of love…

I myself am guilty (as a writer of fiction) of propagating a dream, a light, fluffy sub-reality, because we love to escape. Escape. Ah yes, escape. Let me bury myself in someone else’s love/hate/misery/life.

This is it. We get one try. Don’t blow it… enjoy it. ENJOY it.