My Birthday Boy

My Charley (aka "Windfalls Glorious Gansky") turned five before the new year began.  He is the sweetest boy, but he's the biggest wimp.  

Charley has developed this habit of rubbing his nose against anything and everything--us, of course, the door, a wall, the carpet--and he's rubbed all the hair off the end of his nose.  So I took the boy and his poor bald nose to the vet, and the vet said it was likely that Charley was allergic to the plastic feeding bowl I'd been using--for years, I might add. 

Now--to feed a mastiff, you need to elevate the bowl, so they don't have to bend down and gulp lots of air with the food.  So I set my dogs' big bowls on the top of those huge buckets that chlorine tablets come in so the bowls are about two feet in the air. (You can see the OLD feeding bowl in the background of the BD hat picture.) 

Trouble is, it's hard to find a bowl big enough to fit snugly into the top of one of those huge buckets.  Every time I visit the pet store, either the bowls were too small, they were plastic, or they weren't round. 

But last weekend I got lucky.  I bought two new stainless steel bowls and gave one to Babe, one to Charley.  Babe looked at hers suspiciously for a minute or two, then she threw caution to the wind and  chowed down.

Last night when I tried to feed Charley . . . he was scared of his bowl. So Babe promptly ran in and scarfed down his dinner, clearing saying, "If you're not going to eat it . . . stand aside." 

Charley's bowl is next to his bed, which is surrounded by this huge folding exercise pen that functions as his crate at night.  So last night I put a nice doggie bone, which he loves, in the bowl, and penned Charley in  his crate with the Unfamiliar Evil.  Tough love. 

I think he spent all night sleeping as far as possible from the shiny Alien Bowl. 

This morning I poured his dog food into the bowl, then sprinkled it with yummy people food--our dogs LOVE our leftovers.  Charley wouldn't go near it.  

Knowing that last night, Babe had no compunctions about marching into his bed and stealing his food, when I went out, I had to keep Babe in the kitchen to stop her from dominating Charley's area.  I also had to drape a blanket over the x-pen to keep her from standing on the other side and barking at the bowl. (Hey! Food!  Come over here! Now! Talking to you!)   

Finally, this afternoon--when I knew poor Charley had to be starving--he put his front feet into the bed and leaned toward his bowl.  (I'd just poured warm sausage gravy over his kibble.)

  With his back knees knocking together, he took his first bite . . . and realized that the evil bowl isn't so evil, after all.  

Bless his heart.  My 200-pound wimp.  :-)

Aren't we just like that sometimes, though?  The Lord leads us to something new and different, and we hedge away, then finally approach with knees knocking . . . only to find there's nothing at all to fear. 

~~Angie 

P.S.  Just found out that the Borders edition of Heavenly Daze should be available in stores in early March . . . so spread the word!  :-) 

BOM: Results and reader Reaction

A couple of announcements before we jump into the topic for today: 

First, the second book in the Fairlawn series, SHE ALWAYS WORE RED, is now available for preorder on Amazon.com! 

Second, my pal Allison Bottke has established an online bookclub for "boomer babes"--and if you're a female boomer, that's you!  I'm so honored that her first discussion book is DOESN'T SHE LOOK NATURAL.  If you've read the book, or if you'd like to read along, you can join the discussion here. 

Reader reaction to the Heavenly Daze series depends largely on whether people are able to buy into the premise: could angels be working among us? Those who can accept that usually get into the story and enjoy it. Those who can't, don't. 

But those who can . . . do so with passion.  We established a yahoo group for those who love Heavenly Daze, and that group quickly grew to over 300 members and they're still going strong!  They even meet for annual reunions, and since there have been no new Heavenly Daze books of late, they have branched out into reading (and loving) other authors.  They are a great group of (mostly) women. 

The Heavenly Daze group (we call them "Dazers") have written fan fiction based on the series--they're good writers!  They have also established a "Red Hat Society" chapter for the Dazers, a group which I am now happy to be part of!  (Now that I'm fifty, I can wear a red hat.)  

The Dazers fellowship through email and pray for each other . . . and indulge in a bit of good-natured ribbing on occasion.  If you'd like to join them, send an email to

heavenlydaze-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

They'll take good care of you. 

Tomorrow:  have any questions? Leave them in the comments box and Lori and I will try our best to provide answers! 

~~Angie

BOM: The Editing

I think it's fair to say that most of the editing occurred when Lori and I got together after the "merge" of our stories.  We'd sit at the computer together--either at her house or mine--and go through the book with an eye out for inconsistencies, etc.  Often we'd think of funny things--a direct example of synergy--and the completed project was much funnier than what we'd written on our own.  

Ami McConnell, our editor at Nelson, used to try to guess which of us had written which story.  :-)  

Most of the time the editing went quite smoothly--no major disagreements that I recall.  A painless experience. 

Tomorrow: results and reader reaction 

~~Angie 

PS--If you're read THE ELEVATOR, check out this link!  

BOM: The Writing

Each Heavenly Daze novel is almost like two novellas--Lori and I each had to write a 35,000 word story revolving around the inhabitants of one house.  In the first book, I took the story of middle-aged Pastor Winslow Wickam, while Lori wrote of Annie and her aunt Olympia.  

I had a ball writing about Winslow's toupee, but I have to be honest--I could never have dreamed up that plot if parts of it hadn't happened to a pastor I know.  :-)  Lori tried her hand at writing the more serious story of Annie and Olympia, two women who really don't understand each other. 

While we were writing, we were also doing research on Maine, especially the "Maine-isms" that populate the book.  (Ex: ayuh).  We haven't lived there, but we surely used our copies of "Maine Lingo."  

And on it went.  In the second book, Grace in Autumn, I wrote of Babette and Georgie, while Lori wrote of Bea and Birdie and the trouble with all the letters.  

A Warmth in Winter had me tackling the story of Salt and the children; Lori write about Vernie and Stanley.  

In A Perfect Love, I wrote of Buddy and his pet sugar glider; Lori wrote about Cleta, Barbara, and Russell. 

And finally, in Hearts at Home, we brought the story full circle--back to the original buildings, but we traded roles.  I wrote of Annie and Olympia; Lori wrote of Edith and Winslow.  

Why did we stop writing at that point?  Because the books weren't selling well enough to continue.

 I hate to take time for an economics lesson, but here are the hard facts: in a co-written project, the authors do the same amount of story work for half the salary.  Sometimes it's even more work, because you have to work hard to be sure the stories don't conflict. And after five books, writing about 23 people in a town became COMPLICATED.  We not only had to keep track of what the townspeople were doing in the present book; we had to keep track of everything they'd done in their entire lives!  (Trust me, it's harder than you'd think when you have two authors with two different sets of notes, plus characters who jabber all the time about their past histories).  

We had hoped the series would take off, but though we get lots of lovely letters about the Heavenly Daze series, sales figures seem to indicate that everyone is reading copies from the library or half.com.  Not that we have anything against those outlets, but a series needs to sell if it's going to continue. The sale of used books doesn't pay the authors or count as a sale with the publisher. That's just a fact of the business. 

(Moral:  if you love an author, buy his/her books as soon as they're released if you can. Brisk sales make the publisher PRINT MORE.) 

That's why we're hoping that this new mass market edition (which will sell for much less) will breathe new life into the series. 

 

Tomorrow: the editing

~~Angie

BOM: The Research

One of the first things Lori and I did was book a trip to Maine.  (She lives in Missouri, and I live in Florida.  We didn't exactly know a lot about our northeastern-most state.) 

We booked a room in a charming Ogunquit bed and breakfast called "The Puffin Inn." (See photo).  And then we set out to explore the town.  Not much of an agenda, really--we just wanted to soak up the atmosphere. 

Ogunquit has a tourist area down by the shore called "Perkins Cove."  Lori and I spent a lot of time down there, snapping pictures and getting a feel for the terrain. We also went out on a lobster boat--my strongest memory of that experience is having a migraine.  When the lobsterman came toward me, intent on showing me the difference between a male and female lobster up close, I lowered my head and muttered that I was going to throw up if he put that lobster any closer to my face.  LOL!   (That photo was taken on the lobster boat.) 

Poor Lori, she was so compassionate with me--I think I had a migraine on and off for most of the weekend.  Anyway, after our excursion--and after my headache abated--I took her to the "Lobster Pot," a restaurant where you can pick out your lobster in the tank and then eat him.  Lori had never eaten a whole lobster--and I doubt she ever will again.  I tried to find my picture of her in her lobster bib, but it seems to be misplaced . . . 

When we weren't out taking in the town, we were back in our room at the Puffin Inn, populating the town of Heavenly Daze.  Lori has a real knack for names--so that's how Vernie and Bea and Cleta came to be.  I wouldn't have thought of those names in a hundred years. 

We also set up the structure of the book. Since we live so far apart, we knew it wouldn't be feasible to write "back and forth."  So we created seven buildings for the town, and decided that each novel would feature two buildings. Lori would write the story for the inhabitants of one building; I'd write the other.  Then we'd get together--either at my house or hers--and we'd "merge" the two stories.  We also knew we'd have to stick to a tight timeline, because Lori couldn't have her story transpiring over three months if I had everything happen in one month. 

So--we decided that each HD book would cover one month in the town.  We actually plotted enough events to get the townspeople through an entire year, but our first contract was only for three books--three months.  

We began in October, which is a lovely time of year in Maine.  Tomorrow--the writing. 

~~Angie 

BOM: How the Idea Germinated

Synergy |ˈsinərjē| (also synergism |-ˌjizəm|)nounthe interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects . 
OR:  two heads are better than one. 
The Heavenly Daze series is a direct result of synergy.  One day my good friend Lady Lori  (Copeland) called and said she'd had this idea about a small town series.  I said it'd be cute to add in some angels, but she'd have to be careful to get the angels right--none of this Hollywood stuff that's downright unbiblical.  Lori asked if I'd ever thought of co-writing such a series. I said I'd given up co-writing, unless the other writer is actually a writer, and then . . . ta da!  The idea was born.
Lori's specialty is small town life  and humor.  I usually write "heavier" topics and am more comfortable writing about deeper biblical issues. I'd never written anything funny, and was aching to exercise my funny bone. 
We were immediately enthusiastic about the concept and we KNEW we had a winner.  We set out to convince a publisher to give us a green light, so we met with a couple of different editors, took them cranberry scones, and fairly bubbled over with adrenaline. One of our publishers said he was sold on our enthusiasm alone.  :-) 
Once the contract was settled, we began our research . . . but that's a topic for tomorrow! 
~~Angie 

Book of the Month: The Heavenly Daze Series

Time for another BOM, and this month we'll do a series:  The Heavenly Daze series, co-written with Lori Copeland. 

I get more email about this series than anything I've ever written, period. The books are heart-warming and fun, and since most people read for entertainment, they serve their purpose very well.  

The premise is simple: Heavenly Daze is a town on a small island off the coast of Maine. Two hundred years ago, at the time of the town's settlement, its founder begged God to send angels to protect anyone who crossed the threshold of any home on Heavenly Daze.  That prayer was answered, and now an angel resides in each home--though the townspeople don't realize that the mild mannered "Smith" men are angels in disguise. 

Lori and I like to think of this series as "Touched by an Angel" meets "Mayberry R.F.D."  The townspeople are quirky, but the angels are biblical, and though there are many hijinks, a serious spiritual vein runs through all of the books. 

I hope you'll join me this week as we take an in-depth look at the entire series, beginning with "The Island of Heavenly Daze." 

Oh!  And Happy New Year to you! 

~~Angie