January 29, 2011

What Is This?

Any guesses?


Scroll down and I'll tell you.







Keep going.








Almost there.








It's Button's nose, our calico kitty!

January 26, 2011

Look What I Found

I get Google alerts. Here's one I found for my historic novel, The Goodbye Lie at http://renewcredits.com/list/v2545535993i/vlo51754576.

"The Storms on Florida’s Amelia Island Bring Romance and Murder
As the tornado in 1882 swept through the seaside town on Amelia Island, Breelan Dunnigan, an aspiring writer, got caught up in the whirlwind and ended up in New York City. Fact? No. Fiction? Yes. It’s the beginning of a heart-breaking romance and unexpected adventure in Jane Marie Malcolm’s most recent novel, “The Goodbye Lie” (ISBN 0974918229, Greenlightwrite.)

Immature and impulsive, much like the teens of today, Breelan pays the price that is high and her life is never the same. Her escape to New York City brings new love, however, when she returns to Florida, her life turns upside down. Strong family bonds and values are soon pitted against passion, jealousy and murder."

Thank you renewcredits.com. I'll take it!

January 20, 2011

Making the MARK - BEGIN

I got to thinking about how many times readers ask me questions as to how I write, when, where I get my ideas, my research, etc. To that end, I have decided to include occasional blog updates as to the progress of Mark of a Man, my third historic novel, set in 1898 on Amelia Island, Florida. So, this is the way I write a novel, dear readers. I hope you find it interesting. 
I’m in the process of editing the finished story. That means, I’m reading the entire novel for the second of many times. As life interrupts me, as it should, and I have to shut down the computer for the day, I type BEGIN to indicate where  in the manuscript I am to resume the next day. That next day, I do Control F for Find as I look for BEGIN. Click, click, click , I scroll down until I find the spot I left off. What I’ve discovered is there are far too many uses of the words begin, beginning, begins. Therefore, I have to go back and change/reword all those dreaded RWs (repeated words). Time stealer, but oh so important!

Stay tuned …

January 17, 2011

All in One Piece

For my friends out there who want to know the status of my third historic novel, Mark of a Man, in my historic Goodbye Lie series, I am happy to report I have combined the five sections of it into one manuscript and have gone over it twice so far. I usually change, tweak and hone a story a couple dozen times. That means it will be a while before it's ready to release but rest assured, that's the plan because #4, Sand and Sin, is also finished (the basic novel) and waiting in the wings.


Since I wrote it several years ago, it's fun to return to the story of Pat Dunnigan, the only son of Miss Ella and Michael on Amelia Island, Florida in 1898.  Always in trouble for his pranks, his reputation is that of a good natured but irresponsible and spoiled man in his early twenties.  Not interested in marriage, he much prefers to party thus resulting in difficulty holding a job. Expelled from schools, his father has found the need to fire him from the family ship building business as well.  And so it goes ...

January 9, 2011

Ice-a-Dopes

Yup. Just call us Ice-a-Dopes. Why? Because over Christmas, a better part of my family went from Florida up to Pennsylvania and on into Canada in the dead of winter to see Niagara Falls.  My brother and I were the only ones in our clan who had seen the Falls since our hometown is Erie, Pennsylvania. Visiting "ye ole homestead" near Lake Erie, we were just too close not to cross the border.

Can you say, "Ten degrees?" Remember, blood does thin considerably when you move and live down South, as I have for a good number of years. So while ten degrees used to be tolerable in my former life, those days are gone. We all could have won an Oscar for our interpretation of Chevy Chase in the Vacation movie, where he rubber necks at the Grand Canyon, the same thing we did at the Falls.  Believe me, Niagara Falls is a thing of wonder and we did see it, all of it, the America and the Canadian Falls, but mostly from the sanctuary of the Skylon Tower, http://www.skylon.com/, located there.

"Big burr, little burr, burr, burr, burr!"


Niagara Falls as seen from Skylon Tower http://www.skylon.com/

We recommend you visit Niagara Falls. The best time is spring, summer, and fall when the flowers are blooming and you don't need a nose warmer. We all forgot to wear ours. 
Martha Bear wearing her knitted nose warmer.  Find Jane Marie's directions for making your own at http://www.greenlightwrite.com/nosewarmer.htm!