Let’s hear it for our women veterans!

RomVets is a group of some 80 women who have served – or are currently serving – in either the US or Canadian armed forces. While in uniform they performed in such widely diverse military specialties as naval intelligence, military police, USAF pilot, physician, nursing, meteorology, sonar systems, avionics, communications, engineering, Russian linguist, supply, and personnel. At least one of these women has served in every armed conflict since the World War II. Several are currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Collectively they represent an astonishing 679 years of service to their country.

What makes them even more amazing is that they’re also romance writers. Their ranks include such mega best-selling authors as Joyce Adams, Lori Avocato, Diana Cosby, Cindy Dees, JoAnn Ferguson/Jocelyn Kelley, Susan Grant, Alison Hentges, Candace Irvin, Elle James, Geri Krotow, Merline Lovelace, Pam McCutcheon, Lindsay McKenna, Cathy Maxwell, with many more superstars in the making.

Join them on January 29th for a special blog that talks love and war from a uniquely female perspective!

http://www.mylifetime.com/lifestyle/entertainment/romance-buy-the-book

Just go down to turquoise box at the bottom left of the page and click on Michelle Buonfiglio’s romance books blog.

This is the time of year when I always itch to try something new and different with my writing. I’m not sure why. Is it the lengthening of the daylight or simply the possibilities of a whole year of writing ahead?

Or it may be that I have recently added up all the pages I wrote in 2007. I keep a calendar on my desk, and I daily tally the number of pages I wrote that day. New pages — revisions don’t count. I started keeping track of my pages a day calendar in October 1987. I keep the calendars, so I can look back on what I was working on however many years ago. Sometimes, looking brings back good memories — of when I had a big break-through with a novel or how much I enjoyed working with those characters. Other times, I just want to groan when I think about the characters that simply won’t cooperate or the days trying to find my way out of a creative cul-de-sac.

So I am looking forward and backward at the same time. The perfect thing to in January when I ask myself what I want to be when I grow up. At least for the next year. While I work on the ms that has a March 1 deadline, my mind is considering what else I might like to work on. There are a few ideas buzzing in the back of my brain. Through the year, I hope they feel free to move toward the front and take their place in the queue. I never hurry ideas. For me, they need to ferment like fine wine or compost — and the ideas always turn into one or the other. The trick is knowing the latter from the former and letting those compost ideas go.

A year from now, I’ll look back at this post, and I wonder what I’ll have accomplished by then. Whatever it is, it’ll be an adventure…