did I mention the hot sex?

I tend to be one of those people who puts too many irons in the fire all at once. Between my fiance, my kids, my job, the new vegan diet, my myriad blogs, trying to circumvent the inevitable entropy that is my house, and coming up with excuses to avoid exercising, I'm pretty maxed out. I seem to remember that I am also supposed to be a novelist. Or so my Twitter (@mountainswanted) says. Of course, it also says I like cake. Seems so much easier to live up to that claim!

This weekend a girlfriend of mine texted to ask where a particular quote was in one of my books. I actually borrowed the quote from her (with her permission, of course.) I had no idea off the top of my head, but I knew it was in Mountains Climbed, (Book #2 of my Mountains Series) so I pulled out my phone and searched the book on my Kindle app. It's in Chapter 14, when James comes back from Afghanistan and wants to see Sarah, but she isn't sure it's a good idea. Her best friend sums up what's at stake:

"Oh, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah," Rachel finally admonished her. "Don't you know? Talking leads to seeing...and seeing leads to fucking."
When my girlfriend said that a couple of years ago now, she was referring to her "man of the moment" and what would happen if he talked to his ex.

I had to laugh reading through that passage. My writing seems only vaguely familiar at times. It's like reading something you used to love years ago, but now it doesn't resonate quite the same way. I wonder if other writers feel that way too. It's like the words once gestated in my mind, but grew up to have their own lives with their own meanings. Sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse.

That's when I know I'm not quite there yet. And that the closer I get, the farther I have to go.

In any case, I've taken too long of a break from novel writing. It's time to dig back in. Sometimes I throw all those words out into the arena and wait. And wait and wait. And nothing seems to happen. Then I'll do a promotion here or there and suddenly there's a tiny spark. A seed is planted. I get a review, an email, something that lets me know people are out there reading my words. I have that renewed sense that I should go once more unto the breach.

And so I'm doing my annual fall promotion over at Amazon. My Mountains Series books are on sale for 99 cents from November 5-7th. If you've never read them, the storyline will sound vaguely familiar as it (very) loosely follows the story of my fiance and me. You really can't get much better value than 110K words for less than a buck! Did I mention there's hot sex scenes too?

So, what do you think when it comes to exes: Does talking lead to seeing which then leads to fucking? Inquiring minds want to know!