Loving Lilly

Lilly is a different kind of character. She isn’t your usual strong female in love with the white knight who sweeps her off her feet and rescues her from her bad choices and situations. Lilly is innocent to a fault. All because of one bad choice, her life gets thrown out of control. She gets involved with a low-ranked gangster who gets her pregnant and leaves her all alone in a strange city. She marries the handsome Diego Montiago and later finds out he’s the king pin of one of the largest crime families in the world. So, her first bad decision spins her into another bad decision and so on… The poor girl eventually falls in love with Diego’s younger brother Max, which turns Diego inside out.  So, is she the typical protagonist in a romance novel? Certainly not.

Why do so many people find her so identifiable? Why do so many others want to pull her hair out? Why is she breaking hearts and turning pages? The emotion evoked by this series is triggered by the controversial personality I have assigned my character.  I worried about it at first. But after I got stopped in supermarkets and chased down in doctor’s offices, I started to realize…I love Lilly. Lilly is part of me.

I don’t know about you, but in my life, I have made a few bad decisions. I have made some less than wise dating choices and found myself in situations over which I’ve had little or no control. As we get older, I think it’s safe to say, that the amount of control we actually have over our lives is painfully revealing. Although we have control over our choices, God is certainly in control of the outcome. I will be the first to admit that I dream my story lines, so if I were to try to convey to you that I had a plan in creating the beautiful Lilly, I’d be lying. I didn’t plan to make her the woman we often wish we could be or are afraid to admit we are sometimes. She just kind of ended up that way. The fact that communication is simply not her strong suite, unless she’s hanging out with Hector of course, relationship skills don’t even enter into the picture.

It has been suggested to me by other fellow authors that I keep my voice. They tell me to write the way my heart leads me and to heck with the consequences. So I continue to dream and feel grateful for the real romance in my life. The communication between my husband and me is the backbone to our continuous happy marriage. Will Lilly find that kind of love someday? We can only hope.

 So, I have to ask. What makes you choose your characters and their love interests? Do you take them from your real life or do you go to sleep at night and wake up with a really good idea? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

“Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue.”

– Jack Woodford

Brother Number Three's Latest Review on Amazon

I just got my first professional review for Brother Number Three. Patricia Foltz of Way2Kool Designs writes, "As for the author Judy Serrano I can't wait to read her next book. She writes with such passion and enthusiasm with lots of twists and turns, and full of adventure and excitement..." read more at http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Number-Three-Judy-Serrano/dp/1612960375/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310425964&sr=8-1

Latest Review of Easter's Lilly

I had to share my good news with you. The latest review of Easter's Lilly was posted today by Stephanie Fatta on her blog, Beauty Brite. Here is a quick excerpt:

"Easter's Lilly caught my attention from the first page!  After reading the first page, I just wanted to keep reading and reading.  There is so much mystery and intrigue within the pages that I didn’t want to put the book down.  Easter’s Lilly is filled with surprises that I did not see coming..." read more at 

http://www.beautybrite.com/2011/07/easters-lilly-review.html

How important is the shelf?

To satisfy my demographic, I need the novels I write to be available in paperback as well as electronically.  Many people who read my books will want to hold the book in their hands, see the page numbers and even skim to the end if they so desire. However, the argument has been made: How important is the bookshelf?

I never really thought about this as such a difficult question until today. I had a friend on vacation that read my first book and wanted to get her hands on the second book.  Although my books are available in some stores on some shelves, they are not universally available. She was unable to get the book and I will have to get it to her when she gets home. Of course, I am happy to do it, but I was disappointed that she had to wait. That being said, someone called me on the phone today from a local bookstore and asked me why he can’t find my novel on the shelves.

There is no doubt that the future of bookstores is uncertain. There will probably be a time in the not-so-distant future where electronic books will be more of the norm and less of a luxury.  But until that time, bookstores are still in business and people are still buying hardcovers and paperbacks. So how important is the shelf? What do you think?

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

I am sure you have all heard that if you’re looking to become rich, don’t become a writer. “You’ll never make any real money that way,” they all say to me. I can’t help but notice that Rick Riordan and JK Rowling are certainly singing a different tune. However, we all know that people who are successful in such gigantic proportions are not really the norm, but more like the occasional success story.

So where do we go from here? I know some writers who decide to write for the market: Figure out what’s hot and go for it. Then there are those who continue to follow their instincts and satisfy their craving to write the way they always have. They continue to draw breath into their storylines with their own style, answering the cries that taunt them in their imagination while they are trying to sleep or get something productive done.  Who is right anyway? Will any of us really ever see our characters up in lights someday? I’m pretty sure that Stephanie Meyer had no idea what a huge success she was going to become with her Twilight Series.

So I say, go for it! Write, edit, publish, market and push as hard as you can to make your dreams come true. If you can see it, you can become it.

I believe it was Dale Carnegie who said, “The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.”

What Writers Read

Growing up, I struggled with dyslexia, which made it difficult for me to really enjoy reading. I found it interesting that I had always been a writer though. I think part of the dilemma was the types of books they give you in school to read. Now, I know my teacher friends out there are going to yell at me, but books that were written back in the 1920’s simply do not interest a young adult in high school nowadays. When I was a kid, the books we were given to read were so out of date, that understanding the books, especially with the addition of my learning challenge, became an all consuming, torturous task.

Now that I have learned to overcome my dyslexia challenge, for the most part, I LOVE to read. Lately I have been reading more and more books that are not in my genre and I believe that as a result of this, my writing is suffering, just a bit. Nothing major yet but not being submersed in the genre certainly takes its toll.  My husband pointed out to me that I used to feverishly finish the books I was reading and then begin to zealously write until my fingers bled.

I read up on some pretty famous authors and some of them say to read EVERYTHING! I began to do that and must humbly disagree. I am not sure if it is my learning challenge or just my attention span, but if a book is not in my genre, it will take me forever to finish it. If a book is in my genre, I’ll devour it in two days…tops! When I was a young songwriter, I remember my dad saying to me, “You will have to choose a style. You will eventually write what you let inside.” Wise words, I must admit.

So, I think it is time to be honest with myself and love what I read as much as I love what I write. Books that take a running start off a cliff are certainly the ones that keep my attention. Romance, love, even forbidden desire are all on my list of must-reads and it is time I get back to it. So, Lilly and her family can rest assured that I will no longer leave them holding their breath, waiting for me to write their happy endings. I think I’ll just take a day off and read, read, read…

Moving time!

Well, I think it’s that time: Time for a bigger house. Why, you may ask me? Have any of you ever suddenly realized that your entire family is hanging out in the living room with you, all of the time, because there is nowhere else for them to go? It’s not that I don’t adore my boys, because I do, I simply think that perhaps an office might be in order. I am busily typing away when they start wrestling, yelling and dropping papers on my desk because they are in their way. Actually, I say “my desk” but what I really mean in the coffee table. I can’t really blame them. It’s a thousand degrees outside and they don’t have a playroom. They have simply outgrown our humble abode.

So now, the search is on. My husband is remodeling and repairing to make sure the house sells right out of the gate. It has been an unpleasant experience for him, I’m sure. Fortunately the boys are old enough now to mow the lawn and help out from time to time. We have a huge property, which they normally enjoy when it’s not so hot outside, but it wouldn’t hurt us to have a smaller outside to take care of.

We’ve been here for a long time now. What was originally supposed to be a two-year stop, ended up lasting almost eight years. And although we have grown quite fond of this tiny little town, it has become apparent that God has other plans.

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” – Robert Frost