On Saturday I twisted my sister’s arm to accompany me to Sacramento for the RWA Valley Rose chapter’s monthly workshop. The speaker was Susan Floyd. She’s an author (LUCKY IN LOVE in our WHO NEEDS CUPID? anthology) and a college-level teacher. Her topic was “Conflict.”

This is an extremely important element of any book and she did a great job of showing us the difference between internal conflict and external conflict. I especially liked how she explained the difference between trouble and conflict.

To paraphrase Susan: Your heroine may be blind, broke, pregnant, with one leg, no home and her car just broke down, but that doesn’t mean she has conflict. What’s she got is trouble. A whole lot of trouble, for sure, but no conflict. If she meets a guy who wants to take care of her and she shoots him down because she doesn’t trust men who say they’re going to take of her and then leave…we’ve got conflict.

So, there’s your writing lesson for the day.

I mention this because I just sat down to flesh out my proposal for the third book in my SENTINEL PASS series. Single mom, twice divorced with two kids from different dads, a whole slew of ex-in-laws who expect her fail, college loans up the wazoo and a thesis to write. Conflict? Well, I thought so, but now I see I need to dig a little deeper and see why she keeps making the same mistake, and when she makes it with my hero, what that will mean to my story. Conflict.

Thanks to all who responded about my friend Pat. Her image keeps popping up on my screensaver, making it hard to believe she’s actually gone.

I’m hoping to have a before and after photo for you soon. My four-yr-old granddaughter had a close encounter with a pair of scissors. This is her second such independent cutting. Good thing she’s cute and can pull it off. And, yes, it does grow.

Friday is FEBRUARY 1. One month down and counting…yikes!!! Time is zooming away too fast. I have so many things I was supposed to get done in January. Oh, well….

Deb