$75,000 a year?

I'm hard at work on a short story for the New Year's Chica Lit Blog Tour. If you haven't joined the fun of skipping from blog to blog, reading fresh new stories from your favorite authors, you're in for a treat. If you've joined our past tours, you know that the stories are all different - long, short, romantic, shocking, tender, and all as varied as their writers. 

I'll be writing about Rosie Caballero, the protagonist of my new book, LUCKY CHICA (January 6th - squee!). Before Rosie wins $600 million dollars in the Mega Bucks lottery, she has a pretty tough life. Afterwards, her life is just plain crazy.

I've often wondered how much money it would take to make life easy, or easier, or bearable. For some, $145 is all that stands between sleeping at night and chewing yourself up with worry, wondering how to get the cash to keep the lights turned on. For others, $145 is a week's lunch money. Seriously.

When I was researching for LUCKY CHICA, I read lots of white papers and articles on finance, and was impressed by this factoid: $75,000 a year is what it takes to be happy. Based on living in an average-sized home in a place like Atlanta, or Harrisburg, PA, where home prices are not insane, and having no debt, that is the yearly amount that would allow a family to travel a little in the summer, have a decent holiday, and keep the bills paid. Frankly, I think the figure is a little random, but it makes you think, doesn't it?

Rockin' the NaNoWriMo and getting ready to vote

I've been writing like crazy since Saturday. November 1st is the official start of National Novel Writing Month, and I'm determined to finish writing a book before December. So far so good! I've done this before and figure that I can realistically bank only half a book, but it's fun to try for more.

Tomorrow is election day, and figuring that the wait will probably be hours long, I'm trying to decide the best way to get my writing done. I've already ditched the idea of using my digital voice recorder. My neighbors in line would hate me, and I'm not sure I can speak my ideas for some scenes out loud. Not before cocktail hour, anyway.

Another plan would be to take my folding chair and my Alphasmart and write, or use a good ol' pen and paper (maybe I can talk the guy in front of me to serve as my surface. "Just lean forward a little..."). With hours of waiting time, I should definitely get something done! I hate to waste time.

Maybe I'll take one of my unread Harry Potter books. I'm one chapter into the Half Blood Prince. That could be the best solution. I can save my writing for a less, er, vertical time. I'll still bring a legal pad and a good pen. You never know.

Hope everyone who can exercises their right to vote!

Lucky Chica review in Publishers Weekly

Son married off, check. New book almost finished, check. Gassed up the PT Cruiser for only $2.32, check. Nice review of Lucky Chica in PW - oh yeah, baby!! It's also my wedding anniversary tonight, so I'm off to listen to Gary mix a most excellent martini.

Here's what PW said about LUCKY CHICA:

Lucky Chica Berta Platas. St. Martin’s Griffin, $14.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-34174-9

Platas’s second wish fulfillment fantasy chica-lit novel (after Cinderella Lopez) follows the craziness that ensues as Cuban-American Rosie Caballero’s humdrum world undergoes an extreme makeover after she wins $600 million in the lottery. Rosie shares her megabucks with her grandmother and her lovable cousin Cheeto, and begins plotting how to best spend her riches, gradually transforming her dumpy self into a smart, curvy J-Lo celebrity sort, pursued by the tabloids—much like heartthrob actor Brad Merritt, who, in a magical twist of fate, becomes her boyfriend. But Rosie’s newfound status also attracts envious schemers, ex-boyfriends and the glaring media spotlight. Platas depicts Rosie and crew’s gilded ascension with a giddiness that’s pure escapist fun. (Jan.)

A happy, happy wedding day

Perfect weather, many friends and family, lovely bride and handsome groom = a great time for all! Kudos to Alicea and her mom! The year's worth of work and organization showed in every little detail. Here's the fuzzy bride and groom - shot from across a crowded hall and with all guest hairdos and elbows cropped out. I didn't have time to buy the lottery tickets, so no news of a big winner amongst the guests. I'll do it at Thanksgiving, instead.

Little errands before the Big Day

As part of my last minute "to-do's" before tomorrow's wedding, I'm buying a stack of scratch-off lottery tickets to hand out. It's so much fun at family gatherings to have a pocket full of these, and whenever the mood strikes me I give someone a ticket. Last Christmas my brother in law Tim won $15, and there are always lots of free tickets and $1 prizes. It would be great to one day have someone hit a big prize. Fun!

I'm thinking of doing the same thing at book signings for LUCKY CHICA next year. One lucky reader could win big!  Or little. Whatever, it's still fun. As my character Rosie Caballero says, it's a dollar's worth of hope.  

Off to do dry cleaning, hair cuts, gas fill up (gas is back down to almost reasonable rates - yay!) and other little errands before the big day.

Back to the old blog

I gave up blogging this summer because it seemed as if there's so much blog noise that a blog has pretty much turned into a personal journal. Wait, didn't they start off that way?

The election is just days away and I've been saved from boredom from election news, non-news, and spiteful posturing, by my son Tony's upcoming wedding. Sunday (in two days!) he and Alicea will be wed in a castle on a brisk North Georgia mountain, with fall leaves providing color. Actually, both Alicea's and Tony's family will probably provide more color than all the mountain hardwoods. It will definitely be a meeting of the characters. I can't wait!

Also in "can't wait" mode is expectations for LUCKY CHICA, my upcoming romantic comedy, coming January 9th from St. Martins. More on that later.

INTO THE WILDEWOOD is now in stores!

Hooray for launch date! My young adult novel, Into the Wildewood, co-written with the mahvelous Michelle Roper (we write as Gillian Summers) is now in stores! This is the follow up to THE TREE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER, which came out in September. Michelle and I also celebrated turning in the last book of the trilogy, which we did on Thursday.

We spent 48 hours congratulating ourselves and taking it easy, and now it's time to get back to work. We've got two young adult proposals in the works, and I've got a full length chica lit manuscript to revise. Good thing I like to write, 'cause it looks like there's a lot of it up ahead this summer!