Katrina

I've been watching the news pouring in from Katrina's path. It is just heart wrenching. We're grateful that my husbands sister, who lives in New Orleans, is okay, although it appears that she's lost everything that she owns. She's sheltered in Dallas now with her husband and her pets.

This is a great opportunity for all of us to rise up and help our fellow man. I urge each and everyone one of you to donate your time and your money to help the victims of Katrina. And please remember these people in your prayers.

New Years Resolutions

Yes, I was planning on doing this every day. Or at least once a week. But here it is, halfway into the month and I am just now getting around to it. What can I say, Life gets in the way. There's the decorations to bring down, my sons, home from college who even though they are adults still need lots of tlc. The house is a mess, I have a deadline that I'm way over on and the end is still not in sight. But I am making progress. Most of the decorations are put away, although I am afraid to move in the Christmas closet for fear of boxes falling on my head and breaking some of the things that I was too lazy to wrap up safely. I'm sure I'll regret it next December when I pull them out again. I have my taxes organized and I'm just waiting for my w-2's although I'm dreading hearing what the accountant has to say. The house is clean for the most part, except for my closet because my clothes rack fell on New Year's eve and even though it's back up (thanks Rob) I still haven't stacked everything back on the shelf.Somehow I manage to let all these little nagging jobs get in the way of my real job, which is writing. Isn't if funny how we let life manage us like that? It's almost as if the writing is a reward for getting everything else done when it should be my number one priority.Of course this book has been a problem from the start. It's about Zane, which should be enough said, because as we all know, Zane is a bit of a trouble maker, or as I say, he just likes to stir the pot...But I've found out that Zane has layers. He uses his charm to hide his real self. He has insecurities and secrets and each layer reveals a bit more about him. It's been a real learning experience. After writing Caleb's book, Forgive The Wind, which is coming in June, I thought, hey, this is easy, I've got this thing down to a science. I wrote the book in ten weeks time. But then again, Caleb wears his heart on his sleeve so it was easy to write about him because he's easy to know. Not Zane. He's probably laughing at me right now because I'm doing this instead of learning more about him. What a trouble maker. Maybe I need Jenny to give him another swat with the mop. Of course I've got him hooked up with a rather impetuous School Teacher who has a thing or two to teach him about life and love. I hope I get him done soon. I have another book to write....

Covers

Do you judge a book by it's cover? As most of you now know, the cover for my newest book Windfall was changed at the last minute. The orginal cover is posted on my main page and hopefully both covers will be posted here for you to compare. Let me know which one you like better. I know I have my favorite.The process of creating a book cover involves a lot of work. First of all the author fills out a questionaire that tells what the hero looks like, the heroine, the type of clothing they wear, the period, the weather and the location. And what do we think the cover should look like? Usually on your first book you will get a recycled cover, one they have used before with some minor changes. Sometimes they get them right, sometimes they don't. If they don't you're stuck. The original cover for Chase The Wind featured a brown haired heroine. They changed it when I pointed out to my editor that there wasn't a single person in the book who looked like that.After the questionaire is filled out, models are scheduled to go to a photographers studio and pictures are taken in period clothing. The photos are then sent back to the art director and she arranges them over background shots and adds the print. The cover for Wind Of The Wolf turned out exactly as I envisioned it, even down to the wolf in the sky on the back.Crosswinds was also true to my vision, although there was more skin than I like on my covers. Don't get me wrong, its very nice skin and the man on the cover, Stefan, is a real nice guy. Please drop by his website at www.stefanas.com and see some of his other work. I've had several readers comment that because of the look of the cover they would not normally pick up Crosswinds, except that they knew it was a continuation of the series. The problem we have is that we're marketing a family saga in a market geared towards romance, hence the sight of skin.So the look was established for my books. The orginal Windfall cover fell into the same mode. The model is Teddy Sears who played Chad Bennet on All My Children. At the last minute the publisher decided to try something different and give my covers the Big Book look. Something that indicates saga instead of romance. I think they caught the mood of the story really well.Jake looks exactly as he did in my mind. I see Shannon has having straight heavy hair and she looks like she might be a bit cold in that dress but the overall feel is good. I hope it encourages you to pick it up and read it.

From my old blog site

My first blog. I guess this is exciting. I haven't decided yet. I think I'm more excited about having a public forum to spout my rhetoric. I'm also trying to learn how to update my website to keep it current so you, my fans can keep up with what's going on with my books and my life.So lets start at the beginning with Chase The Wind. The story of Jenny had been in my head since my early high school days. I would pull it out evey now and then (in my mind) and work on it, add things, take away things, but Jenny always remained the same. I never really thought about writing it down. I just didn't think I knew how. I didn't have the proper education to be a writer.Isn't it funny how life works? One day the furthest thing from my mind was being a writer, even though I had always dreamed of a journalistic life in some form. God has a way of putting angels in our paths. One of these angels was Elizabeth who started working part time in the art gallery I had been working in for eight years. When she wasn't working, she was getting her masters. She wanted to be a writer.Most of our conversations during the days were about writing. At about the same time, Jenny began haunting me again. It got to the point where she was all I thought about. You see, she needed someone to tell her story. She knew if her story got written down then her parents and brother would live forever.She really kept bugging me and it got to the point that it hurt my heart. I had to write. So with Elizabeth's encouragement I sat down and wrote her story and the rest, as they say, is history.So lets talk about Ian and Faith now. People get so shocked. You killed the hero in the first third of the book! (I'm assuming that if you're reading this blog, you've also read the book, if you haven't, sorry about giving it away) But it's not Ian and Faith's story, its Jennys! She had a wonderful family. And believe me it was hard to kill them off, especially Ian. He just appeared on the first page and took over the story. He taught me how to write by letting the characters tell the story instead of me. So instead of telling you that Jenny had a wonderful family and she lost them tragically, I let you experience it with her. And of all the people who've read Chase The Wind, I've only had three really complain about it. There might be more, but they haven't let me know about it so I'm going with the majority here.The original manuscript for Chase The Wind actually ended with the birth of Chance and Fox but the publisher asked if I would mind making it into two books. I said of course. Anything you want. You are, after all bringing Jenny's story to the public. I was also excited about this prospect because it really let me develop Chase's character, something that I felt I didn't do enough in the original manuscript. Getting into Chase's head was quite an experience for me.I never knew in the beginning the Jenny's story would grow so much, but as each of the characters were introduced I realized that they all had their own stories to tell so I've been going down the line, telling them. You've read about Ty and Cat in Crosswinds. Jake's story, (tricked ya) Windfall will be released on December 7. Caleb's story, Forgive The Wind, will be released next June(I think I channeled that one) and I am currently working On Zane's story, Whirlwind. Zane is giving me a headache, but that's just Zane.Okay, I'm done blogging for the day. I'll try to be regular about doing it. If there's anything you want to know about, email me at cindyholby@aol.com and I'll see what I can do.Cindy

Time for a Change

I'm thinking of changing some things. It's time. I'm wearing my hair different. No more bangs. Of course now I might need Botox since my forehead shows. I'm shopping for new linens for Drew's room. I've moved my online journal to this site because I wanted to add pics. See, lots of change. Change is good. It keeps things fresh. Sometimes it comes whether we want it or not. Sometimes it forced upon us. And sometimes, we just decide that its time for a change. I'll let you know how things are going.

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