Delusions of Grandeur

As anyone who's read my work can tell you, I keep my characters and plots grounded in contemporary reality. Sharp prose-check. Engaging characterization-check. Sexy love scenes-BIG check. Flights of fancy....not so much. That is until I hit my latest bout of insomnia.

Getting only four hours of sleep every night leave one with much time to write. I've finished a few current projects, started edits on others so I figured it was time to dip into the NWIPF-- Neglected Work In Progress File. There I found a story that has been swimming around the goldfish bowl of my brain for nearly a year titled 'Hour of the Wolf.' Okay, it's more CJ's story than mine, but since we both occupy the same head and I don't have the strength to create a blog of her own, I figure it's okay to refer to the work as mine. (This multiple author personality disorder moment has been brought to you by Prozac). Sorry for the digression.

Anyhoo, I had only the broadest of strokes laid out for this tale of shape-shifting love:
Sophia came to Albemarle Sound for a little peace and quiet. Spending most of her alone, she's fascinated by a red wolf who's taken to visiting her nightly. When she meets Gabriel, a singularly handsome man in town during a shopping trip, he seems all too familiar. Is it Sophie's imagination or does this stranger possess a wolfish quality? Suddenly the wolf's visits cease and Gabriel disappears as well. Determined to find out what's going on, Sophia discovers a dark secret revealed in local folklore. Can she free the wolf and Gabriel from a curse that dates back to colonial days?

Could've been the 'singularly handsome man' part or the 'dark secret,' but something about the project intrigued me. I started to play around with an outline. A few hours later, the outline was finished and the project had gone from an idea for a short story to an epic novel complete with an underground society of American werewolves. I took the next step and broke the outline into scenes and chapters, then toiled away at character worksheets, backstories, geneology charts, and mapped out territories for the Lupine Alphas. See, I've even given my wolven folk a working nickname.

I should be all set to write....except for one thing....Am I out of my cotton-picking mind??? I've never created a fantasy world, I know nothing about writing a paranormal plotline, and the scale of the undertaking is freaking me out ever so slightly. An epic saga...did ya really have to start with an epic saga? I've got a bang up opening scene for the first chapter, but other than that, my fingers are frozen with anxiety. Have I finally gone off the deep end into delusions of grandeur? Stay tuned. The mental breakdown will be blog-a-cized.

To M, because he's brilliant

Word ooze
Across the page after page
Your verb sap

At first glance
Unrelated utterances
Upon further study
Related to universal truths

Beautiful mind
Beautiful poet

HEA...Why Do We Love It So

The Disney Movie Club shipped me the wrong movie. I’d ordered “Monsters, Inc”, but I received “Enchanted.” My upper lip curled in disdain at the sight of the cover, but my four year-old son was unfazed by the error.

“Let’s watch this movie, Mommy,” he said, finding (as children often do) the simplest solution to the problem.

Now, I’m a huge fan of Pixar, the quality of their storylines and the detail in the animation makes their movies easy to sit through over and over again. And over and over and over…well, you know how kids can wear out a DVD. “Enchanted,” on the other hand, seemed to me a saccharine piece of shlock I didn’t want to watch even once, much less dozens of times in a row should the little one develop a liking for it. But, thanks to McDreamy’s starring role in the movie, I decided to give it a go. If nothing else, I could stand watching Patrick Dempsey as the charming leading man for a couple hours.

By the second musical number in which rats, pigeons, and cockroaches helped our heroine scrub down the hero’s filthy New York apartment, I was laughing aloud at the funny and astute satire of archetypical Disney princess movies. And though I don’t want to spoil the ending for those of you who want to see the movie, but haven’t gotten around to it, I will say this—by the end of the movie I cheered right along with my son when Princess Giselle wound up with her true love. Okay, I’ll admit it, I even got a little misty. My heart rejoiced though my brain huffed, “What a load of crap.”

Given the predilection in romance and sensual erotica genres for a neat, fulfilling happily-ever-after ending, the movie made me wonder—Why do we love HEA so? In reality almost as many marriages fail as succeed and that doesn’t take into account the myriad of people we burned through just trying to find the person we’d be willing to take a chance on. With a real world full of broken hearts, dysfunctional couples, and blasé pairings, how can we willingly suspend our disbelief and seek out fiction that propagates what some would call the myth of true love?

I finished my long list of reasons why we shouldn’t buy into HEA and then the realization struck me—It is for all these reasons and more that we do crave the fantasy in our fiction. HEA endings allow us to experience vicariously the satisfaction that so often eludes us in our day-to-day lives.What woman doesn’t want a break from work, motherhood, chores, and the tedious (and often messy) reality of an adult relationship? Somewhere inside of us is a little girl who wants to flounce around the house in a tiara and a tutu. We love to conjure up mental images of a prince who knows how to anticipate our every need, who will catch us each time we fall, and who doesn’t fart, burp, pee on the toilet seat, get cranky or forget to take out the trash.

That we have different tastes as to the form of our princes has given rise to the different icons of masculinity we romance writers use to delight our readers—the dark and brooding vamp who longs for a mate to bring meaning to his soulless existence, the uber-macho warrior who needs the softness of a feminine touch, the rebel without a pause who runs into the one woman that can ease his restlessness, and of course the regal and gentlemanly prince who finds his true, but forbidden love through a chance meeting. Just to name a few.

With our appetite for love and romance sated for a little while by the many incarnations of our princes, we are all the more ready to take on the challenges each day brings. But when the real world gets to be a little more than we can take, we’ll be back at the cinema, the video store, and of course Once Upon a Bookstore hungry for more flights of fancy.

Check out Ana's happily-ever-after in Point of Distraction the Final Collection today! http://www.lyricalpress.com/cindy_jacks

12 Things I love about Ana

With the release of the final installment to the Point of Distraction Series only days away, Ms. Ana Welsh has been on my mind. Mostly, I've remembered the fun of creating and 'watching' the character blossom. She has some signature moments that always make me smile. Thought I miss writing about Ana, I love to visit her world and reread the collection often. I hope you enjoy her journey as much as I have.


And without further ado, here are 12 things I love about Ana -- my favorite moments from each story:





Story 1: On the dance floor with Miguel


Story 2: Granny panties!


Story 3: Mmm...pineapple


Story 4: A Scunci?!


Story 5: Ana runs into Nikhil...literally


Story 6: Chocolate sauce on the dining room sconces


Story 7: Cinnamon apple pancakes


Story 8: Ana the photogenic


Story 9: Honey drizzles


Story 10: Malasadas


Story 11: That damn Peter Frampton song


Story 12: Todd's post office faux pas





Chock full of fun, laughter, tears, friends, adventures, good wine, great food and sexy, sexy men, you can't go wrong with Point of Distraction. Check out all four books July 20th!