A Special Library Visit

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy

The DH and I just returned from a little jaunt to Utah and Colorado for our anniversary, and a fun time was had by all, especially when I discovered both The Wild Sight and The Treasures of Venice in the Pikes Peak Library District collection!

We had visited Arches National Park and then Canyonlands both in Utah before we decided to drive up Pikes Peak in Colorado. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the ranger station, we were told that the summit was closed due to 90 mph winds! ACK! We definitely didn't want to go up there even if they would have permitted us!

Instead, we drove back into town to the historic section called Colorado City. As soon as I spotted the beautiful old Carnegie library building, I urged my DH to stop. The library I'd loved so much as a child was a Carnegie building too!

My DH dropped me off and I went inside to check my email. Since I didn't have a reservation, I could only use the internet for 15 minutes, but that was enough time to get my daily fix! So when I was done, just for the heck of it, I decided to put my name in the library 'author search.' To my complete surprise and delight, both The Wild Sight and The Treasures of Venice popped up!

Matter of fact, The Treasures of Venice was in the very library branch where I was standing! With my heart a-flutter, I logged off the computer and went in search of 'the paperback collection.' After a few minutes of walking around, I discovered that all of 'the paperback collection' was contained on two sets of bookshelves (this was a small library after all).

And there was MY book, on the top of the second set of shelves! How lucky to have my name start with "M" because A through L occupied the first shelf and M through Z the second. With such a small collection of paperbacks, I felt even more special to have The Treasures of Venice included! Best of all, as my DH pointed out when he came in a few minutes later and I dragged him over to see, the pages looked ruffled.

Someone had definitely checked the book out and read it!

I spent many happy hours in the library as a child and even more as an adult, so finding my book in a small library in another state was a very big thrill for me! Plus this was my first time seeing any of my books actually on the shelf in any library. As a child, I used to read all those author names on the spines of all those books and imagine how wonderful it must feel to have a book you wrote sitting there for people to read. Well, now I know, and IT FEELS GREAT!

What about you? Do you have any special memories of libraries? Please share them with us here in the Lair. I know I missed the recent late night reading session, but we can certainly have another one. Please share what you are reading for this lovely weekend. SHHHH! Just don't tell Sven, the gladiators, and the new guy, Paolo!

And the winner is...

Catslady's comment on Websites and Blogs and Social Networks, Oh My! was drawn as the winner! Catslady- congratulations. If you'll drop me an email at Tawny@Tawnyweber.com with your shipping information, I'll mail you a copy of Risque Business. Be sure to put Bandits in the header.

Everyone, thanks so much for all the great insight and info. I'm all a'twitter about learning this new stuff (are you groaning? I am LOL)

Hey (Aunty horns in), can I announce my winners too???
Congrats to Crystalgb, you've won a copy of my debut release The Wild Sight!

And Maria Lokken, you've won some Bailey's Irish Creme filled chocolates!

Please email me at cindymm18 AT gmail DOT com.

Big THANX to all who attended my Launch Party!

A Fairy Tale Comes True

posted by Aunty Cindy

Once upon a time, a very very long time ago, there lived a little dark-haired girl of Irish heritage who loved stories. When she didn’t have her nose buried in a book, which was actually most of the time, she made up stories for her own and her best friends’ amusement and/or amazement.

This little girl secretly thought that the most wonderful thing in the world would be to write a book and have it on the shelf of the library or bookstore where anyone could read and enjoy it. But she knew that this could never happen to her, because authors were very special people who were not at all like the ordinary people all around her. So she kept writing her stories, mostly in secret, and dreaming.

XX years (insert your favorite number between 20 and 90) passed, and the little girl grew up and had a family and a career. She still loved to read, and she could never quite give up her secret dream of writing. Also, somewhere along the line, the girl (now a woman and not so little) figured out that not all authors were up there on that very special pedestal. Some were real (if not quite ordinary) people just like her!

Finally, unable to stand her Dreaded Day Job any longer, the not-so-little woman quit! Even though most of her co-workers thought she was crazy, she left her career to do what she had always loved most – WRITE STORIES! It paid far less than the Dreaded Day Job, but was much more fun and healthy.

Like all good fairy tales, this one has a happy ending! Turns out that the not-so-little woman was pretty good at writing stories. She even finaled in a VERY BIG contest and made some of the most wonderful friends of her life. Eventually, after X years (insert your fave number between 3 and 4), a real live editor called the not-so-little writer and said, “I want to publish your Irish book.”

The writer screamed, “Yes! YES! OMG YES! (much like her heroine did on page 157)” and then she proceeded to tell friends, family and everyone she knew (and plenty she did not know) that she would soon be A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! It was just a matter of waiting a few hundred days for her book to be on the shelves.

So our not-so-little author and all her friends (and even some people she didn’t know) waited and waited for the day when the Irish book, now titled The Wild Sight: an Irish tale of deadly deeds and forbidden love to appear on the bookstore shelves.

THAT DAY IS TODAY!!!!!!

The author (that would be ME) and all her friends (that would be all of YOU)

PARTIED EVER AFTER!

Dreams and even fairy tales can come true!

Please help your olde Aunty celebrate the release of her debut novel The Wild Sight. And share with us about one of your dreams that came true.

One lucky commenter will win an autographed copy of The Wild Sight, and another will receive a box of chocolates filled with Bailey’s Irish Crème!

PARTY HARDY EVERYONE!!!

A Little Bit Me and a Little Bit You

posted by Aunty Cindy aka Loucinda McGary

The other day, I was sent some interview questions for a guest blog I'll be doing in a couple of weeks (Aunty squees with excitement). One of the questions was: Do you base your characters on real people or are they purely figments of your imagination?

My first reaction was of course they are TOTALLY made up from my imagination. But then I realized that's not exactly true. So in order to honor the "truth in lending" law... No wait! That's not right! So in honor of honesty being the best policy- -yes, much better!- - Aunty will reveal some of the real people whose names or traits wound up in characters in The Wild Sight.

• The hero's older sister, Doreen. Okay, might as well start with the obvious! I have three younger siblings. It was my duty as first born to see that they did not run amuck too terribly much. THEY called me bossy (I suspect they still do), but I was merely doing my duty and trying to look out for their best interests. It was only natural that I give my hero's older sister some of these same wonderful traits.
• Doreen's husband, Sean. My DH has a cousin in Northern Ireland named Sean (imagine that!) who is a sweet and charming man, and definitely influenced my creation of this character.
• PSNI Inspector Colm Lynch. When I first went to work for the Department of Health Services lo these many years ago, my boss's boss had the last name Lynch. He was a big, beefy man with white hair, but I swear all resemblances end there!
• The heroine, Rylie is a petite, sassy young woman with the tenacity of a bulldog. One of my beloved nieces happens to be 4' 10" and a size two, with quite a mouth on her (can't imagine where she got that trait), but the resemblance ends there. She is a couple of years younger than Rylie and does not have blonde hair or gray eyes. There is, however, a certain pointy-chinned young actress who has portrayed several sassy characters in films that provided much inspiration for Rylie.
• The hero, Donovan is one of those strong, rather silent types who does not like to talk about himself nor his feelings. Gee, has anybody EVER met or known a guy like that? (To quote Craig Ferguson, "Remind you of anyone?") ME TOO! I even married a guy like that... AHEM! But Donovan's interest in art is definitely rooted in my DH and his artistic endeavors. And yes, there is a certain tall and lean Aussie actor who provided some physical inspiration for Donovan. But you already knew that Aunty likes 'em tall and lean. ;-)
  

Finally, I purposely named a minor character for my son. He has an Irish first name, after all, and he actually thought that was "cool." He didn't even mind that I gave his character two daughters who have the same names as two of my nieces. They don't know yet, but I think they will get a laugh out of it.

What about you? Have you ever read a book and thought you recognized one of the characters? Or certain aspects of a character? If you are a writer, do you base your characters on "real" people? Bits and pieces maybe? C'mon now, honesty is the best policy!