Marketing with Mandy~Linden Bay Romance Publisher Spotlight Part II
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Linden Bay Romance.
A:
I cannot say enough good things about my experience with Linden Bay, especially since I have had experience with other publishers.Of paramount importance to authors is Linden Bay’s respect for the writer’s voice and story. Manuscripts go through a content edit where the editor points out issues and/or inconsistencies, many of which are not apparent to the person crafting the story. The content editor looks at the manuscript as a reader might, making suggestions. The difference I have found with Linden Bay is that the decision to publish, and/or what to publish, is mutually arrived at by the editors, publisher, and author.
Why is this important when what every writer wants to be is published? I had a young adult novel published (mercifully under another name) which was such a dreadful experience I have never been able to read the book through. Suffice to say, I was a novice and I should have known to pull the plug when they changed the book drastically, cut out what I considered the best parts, and, in the end, lopped it off and ended it in the middle. It was, however, well-marketed and has made money for me, which is something, but honestly not the most important thing.
Being published with a work you are proud of is far more important than just being published.
Trust me!
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I have to admit that promotion and marketing is not my strong suit. (Okay, we can all stop laughing now—I readily admit it remains to be determined if I even have a strong suit.)
One of my issues is living in a small community where I’m a little reluctant to show up at the local bookstore for a signing. Why?
People who know you just don’t seem to get that it’s a “story”—they think it’s really your story. (Which of course it is, in many ways, but not in the obvious ways everyone thinks. Because redheads are underrepresented as heroines, mine frequently are, but that doesn’t mean that the redhead in the book is me. No one, I fear, really believes that.)
However, I have just drawn up a new organization schedule for myself with goals to be met weekly in marketing.
I think it probably helps to join a number of groups, something that I’ve done, but haven’t mustered up the organization to post on a periodic basis. I have also joined a local writers’ group, with the intent that group-marketing might work better for me.
Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: Don’t give up. Persevere. Try different genres—all writing experience informs you. Enter contests where you receive feedback.
The best advice I might give is—always read your work aloud. If you have a critique group with whom you are comfortable, read aloud to them. But always remember it’s your voice! Even if you only read aloud to yourself, it works.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: The Not-So-Victorian Viscount is set in mid-19th Century Hong Kong, then a British colony.
Forever letting her curiosity get the better of her, our heroine, Angelica Aldrich, has refined her penchant for listening at doors to a high art.
Just out from Virginia, Angelica joins her brother, David, and his wife as the couple await the arrival of their first child.
When David’s business partner, the dashing Viscount St. Alban, returns from a sea voyage, Angelica is surprised to find that the shortage of appropriate housing for foreigners requires the Aldriches and St. Alban to share a house.
Despite Angelica’s shock at St. Alban’s rakish ways and unsuitable female companions, she is quickly charmed by a pup he took in as a foundling.
Angelica gradually develops a friendship with the enigmatic, mysterious St. Alban himself, a man whom so many women find attractive but who seems to have no close friends.
Exotic Hong Kong excites Angelica’s interest. Unlike most of the expatriates, she is fascinated by Chinese culture, considered by the others inappropriate and even dangerous. St. Alban alone encourages her, even persuading one of the mandarins to instruct her in painting.
The expatriate community is startled when the Black Dragon, a mysterious pirate, begins raiding ships in the vicinity.
Will Angelica’s curiosity put her in the path of danger?
Will St. Alban’s secret plot for revenge on an old rival succeed?
Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?
A: The alpha males ride again! Hey, I love these guys and they work better in historicals. I’m taking a chain saw to a Victorian novel set in India, hoping to cut it in half. (Even Tolstoy was not as wordy as I can be.) My characters have enough adventures to stock a television series.
I’m also at work on a historical set in Central and South America.
My heroes tend to be Clark-Gable-as-Rhett-Butler playing a new role. That’s the kind of man I adore and my heroines do, too.
Q: How do you come up with your ideas?
A: I daydream. My mind wanders when I drive and I end up in all sorts of unexpected places. I keep a notebook beside me in the car and I have learned to make notes without looking. (I know, I know, this woman is even more dangerous than someone yakking on a cell phone while driving.)
Q: Why do you like writing romance/erotica?
A: Maybe it was growing up in the South, but I always knew my most important degree would be my MRS. Despite coming of age during the feminist revolution and becoming a charter subscriber to MS. magazine (that subscription caused the first fight between me and my husband-to-be), I was always looking for Rhett Butler.
My dolls and my paper dolls were romantics. I kept a diary which I hoped in later years would beguile me into thinking I had a hot romantic life, too. Unfortunately my mother read that and I was always getting lectured about something that (sadly) never happened. I wrote excruciatingly sweet romances in high school that all my friends read. (Surprisingly, they remain friends today.)
When I went off to college, I was more interested in romance than studying (rather the sort of thing my own Student Prince does today).
Gone with the Wind was my favorite book (yes, Rhett came back to Scarlet) and Anna Karenina and Dr. Zhivago were close seconds. (There are no happy endings in real literature.)
I like writing romance because I like reading it. I’m a romantic at heart. In my view, love is an extraordinary force.
I don’t consider my writing “erotica,” but it is indeed more sensual than books were fifty years ago. I sort of think a higher degree of the sensual is the norm for contemporary writing. To omit it in adult literature would almost render the writing archaic in sound. Sensuality is even pretty much a given in the mysteries and spy novels my husband reads.
Having said that, portraying hints of passion and sexuality (not to mention the book covers!) do inhibit some of my attempts at marketing. I grew up in a small town and shedding the notion of “what people think” is not easy. Sometimes I feel like a split personality. I’m very active in my church. Wow, would a “church lady” write stuff like this? Would a docent at a premier American art museum write romance? Would the lady who reviews art exhibitions for Philadelphia’s Main Line weeklies write romance?
LINKS:
Homepage
Blog
E-mail: MarieCarroll@mariecarroll.com
Publisher
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Linden Bay Romance
A: Working with Linden Bay Romance has been one of the best experiences in my writing career. Barb Perfetti makes certain that each book LBR publishes is “worthy” of four and five star reviews.
I’ve written SF, fantasy, and horror for a number of years, but In Trysts was my first romance. Barb was really patient with her explanations regarding the distinctions between romance, which is character-driven, and my other novels, which tend to be more action-driven. I have to say that I had never been through so many edits as I was with In Trysts. By the time it was released, I could feel confident of its technical, and hopefully content, quality.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: Blogging, ads, interacting in chatrooms with readers, posting excerpts and book titles on sites which specialize in that genre.
Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: Patience, perseverance, providence: if you’re patient enough, and work long and hard at perfecting your craft, some day you’ll find yourself in the right place at the right time, and you’ll be published.
Q: What types of research do you do for your books?
A: Scientific journals, archeology journals, history journals, and all the databases therein. I’m a student as well, and I’ve done postgrad mycology as well as archeology, with a little virology tossed in. My problem is frequently too much information! Once something interests me, it’s difficult for me to let go.
Q: How do balance family and writing?
A: I get up at 4 a.m., and 3.30 a.m. when the situation calls for it. I have 14-year-old at home, but not so very long ago all four of my kids were still at home. I’d steal time when I could between work and mothering, read parts of my fantasy novels aloud to my children to determine whether they flowed, and basically give myself impossible deadlines that I’d then somehow fulfill.
Since I’m solo parenting, I do the 4 a.m. rising, sandwich in class and projects around writing, and quit everything at 3.45, when my daughter gets home from school. That’s her time, and she needs to feel valued. A lot of the time we may just watch TV, yak, do the DVD thing, or I’ll read aloud to her. She still enjoys that. We may shop or sing, goof around. She understands if I have the occasional urgent project, but I try to manage my time around her. It’s a matter of priorities. Published books may feed my ego and my pocket, but my children fill my heart. They come first.
Q: Why do you like writing romance/erotica?
A: Actually, I don’t! Oh, horrors!
I find it much more fun to write SF or fantasy, with a bit of romance tossed in. I actually find it a bit boring to slant the entire book toward the interaction between two characters. It’s something I haven’t really been able to change about my writing, either. All my books tend to have multiple characters, undertones of horror, and threat coming at the characters every which way.
I think it gets to my romance editors every once in a while – the way my action jumps here and there to tear the characters apart, maybe with another character, a monster, a demon or a mutant. Sigh! These things happen. You never know when you’re about to kiss someone, and he suddenly begins to arc electricity. LOL
Q: What would you do if you weren’t a writer?
A: What I’m already doing, only more of it. I oil paint, plus I’m a full-time postgrad student in archeology. The goal remains the same: finish up and do two-week research stints throughout the Pacific Islands. I’d also paint a heck of a lot more, and maybe begin to market my work again. I have pieces in eight countries, but always worry that I may have lost my “edge”.
LINKS:
http://MelodyKnight.com
http://www.NDHansen-Hill.com
Books at fictionwise
Publisher Author Page
CP Publisher Author Page
MySpace
To be eligible to win one of the many prizes Linden Bay Romance Authors are offering, comment THIS WEEK on their Marketing with Mandy blog spots. Winners will be announced on Sunday!
Here are some of the prizes they’ll be giving away:
Samantha Sommersby will give away a signed print copy of Forbidden: The Awakening .
Nancy Henderson will give away a note/stationary set.
Shiela Stewart will give away a signed print of her book ‘Secrets of the Dead’
Cat Johnson will give away a signed print copy of Trilogy No. 102: Opposites Attract
Peter Brandt is giving away an ebook download of his romantic comedy novel “The Secret Life of Harden Long”
Jane Beckenham is giving away an Ebook download of her book “Hiring Cupid”
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hi the not so victorian viscount sounds gr8 its definety on my readig list
Marie said portraying hints of passion and sexuality (not to mention the book covers!) do inhibit some of my attempts at marketing. I grew up in a small town and shedding the notion of “what people think” is not easy.
I’ve had the same thing happen. I think most authors do to at least some degree. For every one person who has given me “the look” when they find out what it is I do and what I write, five more have been like “cool” got a bookmark or something?
Melody said do two-week research stints throughout the Pacific Islands.
Oooo, I’m wicked jealous right now!
Hi, Amy. The Viscount is such a wicked, wicked man, but he does have a good heart (er, well, mostly good).
Mandy, it took me a long time to get up the courage to give my mother one of my books. The result? Sometimes, I should go w/ my better judgment!
And I forgot to add that I’ll be giving away a signed print copy of The Not-So-Victorian Viscount this weekend to one of Mandy’s readers.
Marie Carroll
“People who know you just don’t seem to get that it’s a “story”—they think it’s really your story. ”
VERY WELL SAID! :rockon:
Great interviews!!!
“I’m a full-time postgrad student in archeology. ”
AH! That is so cool. I wanted to be a historian until I was told it was museum curator or collage professor, LOL. And I looked at archeology and social anthropology, but there weren’t any good dig sites to learn anything at where I’m at.
I guess you could say I live in the Pacific Islands! I’m in Auckland, New Zealand, so we’re just a short hop from Niue, New Caledonia, the Bismarcks, Papua New Guinea. Heaps of archaeological research has been done on the islands in the last few years, but there’s always room for more (thank goodness!).
All my recent books seem to have history and archaeology in them. In Trysts was about a woman righting past wrongs, but it was really a good excuse to have my character explore ancient cemeteries! For In Flames we’re looking at cairns and ancient barrows. That’s the real reason I write – so I can “do” all these things vicariously through my characters! LOL!
When I qualify in archaeology, I’ll be quite happy to dig holes and sift through sediments, trying to discover the narrative for the people who lived there. Their story…
Sigh.
Where do you live, Michelle? We get a number of profs here who have done work on Native American sites. The rule of thumb now seems to be research trips (e.g., 2-4 weeks), gather as much information as possible, then take your results back to your home university and work on all that data and try to put it into some kind of framework/timeline.
Maybe you could enrol in field school? They have them all over the world!
:txu: Excellent interviews Mandy. :txu:
Thank you ladies.
I have enjoyed learning more about you.
Great interviews ladies, and yes I can certainly relate about giving our books to our mothers to read. Since HIRING CUPID got 5 stars and was rated erotic contemporary I decided mother didn’t need to know!
And yes, I can vouch for Melody’s busy schedule. How does that lady fit it all in
Jane
Marie Carroll,
Just finished reading the excerpt for ‘The Not-So-Victorian Viscount’. Well done. Look forward to reading all of it.
:evilplan: The highest praise I can give is, it reminds me of Phyllis Whitney’s Hong Kong, Far East novels. Well Done. :cheer:
Thanks for visiting, BlueValkerie!
The busy comment’s funny coming from Jane! She, Yvonne Walus (another author friend), and I are always on the phone, scheduling promos and book events and radio shows – and complaining about how busy we are, LOL! Then, of course, we merely get enthusiastic and slog on more! We have so many plans and files and events that it’s a miracle we get any writing done!
The Not-So-Victorian Viscount sounds very good!
Michelle:
Even my aunt found people in my first book, Red Phoenix Rising (set in Vietnam during the war — I should amend, The War being an American term — and the people there have suffered lots of wars), that she claimed reminded her of people I’d talked about growing up.
Now go figure! The only character REMOTELY based on anyone I ever knew was a character in the hero’s hometown in Virginia, who looked (in my mind) like a favorite poli sci professor from college!
Marie Carroll
Blue Valkerie: (And what a terrif ID!)
I loved your little mandarin and the cheerleader. I love Asian settings — I think I must have been Asian in a former life. (An empress, of course — there’s no use having past lives unless they are worth talking about!)
Marie Carroll
Great interviews! I love learning about new authors. Both of the books have really nice covers. The Not-So-Victorian Viscount sounds really good! I love a wicked man with a good heart.
Well, Cherie:
As you know, wicked men don’t develop good hearts w/o the help of a good woman!
Marie Carroll
What a pleasant way to spend some time, reading interviews with two very different but equally fascinating authors!
Marie, as to the questions in your last interview paragraph, I say a resounding YES … but each of them uses a pseudonym.
Melody, I simply HAVE to read more of your work, so keep it up!
mary lou
Mary Lou:
You nailed it. At one point, when the phone rang for one of my aliases (and after I FINALLY taught my husband and the Student Prince not to say “WHO?”), when I hung up, my husband looked at me and shook his head. “Do you ever get confused about who you are?”
We had a big laugh over that one!
Thank you so much, Mary Lou! I’m nearly finished with book #29 right now. Only five of mine are romances so far, but I’m working on improving those numbers with SF and fantasy romances.
I owe Linden Bay Romance so much for getting me started in romance writing. Without Barb’s input, I don’t know whether I would ever have been able to manage the transition successfully from horror/SF/fantasy to romantic suspense! In Trysts was one of the most difficult books I’ve written.
I smiled because I have both of these on my wishlist to get! I remember with Marie’s and seeing the historicals on the site!! And too Melody, I think I met you in a chat about your book and wrote it down to get!
I wanted to ask if the releases are out once a month, right? Is there a list for a newsletter for the releases? I know there’s a chat loop but I don’t get to chat much n ow with my health, so I rely on newsletter and I’m sure others do too! Will you have a newsletter go out each month the releases go out? Or any annoucement only list that it would go out on? Just a thought.
I need to find your sites too so I can check if newsletters on there so that would be one place I could find out if you individual have one out and too to see all you have!
I want that wicked print Marie, LOL I love that they have prints. I’ve have read ebooks and enjoyed so much that I wanted the prints as a keeper and i see a couple I missed that I haven’t read so I probably will go to the route with getting the prints. I have a couple now and many on wishlist. The quality of them are great!
I know i’m chatting so much. So great to be here. I’ll post my question separately
Me again!
Question 1) Do you have another genre/theme you’d like to write? If so what would it be and about? Any genre/theme you avoid and why? (Like me I won’t read horror cuz i’m a wimp )
Question 2) When you have the time, what authors you enjoy reading?
Hi, Cathie:
Welcome to the chat. You posed some super questions and I was in the midst of answering when I went onto Google for a spelling and lost what I was posting. (I have issues w/ machines that are smarter than me.)
If you go to http://www.LindenBayRomance.com, you can sign up to be on our loop, which will notify you when there are new releases.
As for a newsletter, I don’t think we have one, but there’s a good idea!
Concerning what genre/themes I write, mostly I do historical, although my new book, coming out in September, BREACH OF PROMISE, is contemporary. I hadn’t intended to do that, but my hero from the short story in HEROES UNWRAPPED camped out at my computer and the naughty boy wouldn’t go away until I’d told his story.
I don’t write horror or any sort of fantasy, primarily because I don’t read a lot of it and I don’t think I’d be good at that. I’m not smart enough. My husband says I take things too literally.
What authors do I read? Well, I read the covers off of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. I love Pearl S. Buck’s China novels. Kathleen Woodiwiss was the reason I fell in love w/ romance. And, actually, I plucked a book out of my husband’s pile the other day and literally could not put it down until I finished it. (It was my birthday, so I figured I could do nothing all day if I wanted — not that doing nothing is unusual for me!) It was GENGHIS, by Iggulden, who’s just written THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS. I loved it!
Hope your health will improve!
Marie Carroll
Hi Marie! Again nice to meet you!! I too am so not techy! I try and I spend way too much time figuring things out but I’m learning and I’m glad I had figured out how to use a blog,
(That took some trials and errors too). I appreciate you or anyone to look into a newsletter. WOuldn’t want to miss more!
I did miss the HEROES anth but I do have it on my wishlist. I seem to read more contemps and romance suspense with ebooks. I know what sensuality I will get so I enjoy them more (I got burned out reading straight suspense). But Historical romance are still the ones I enjoy the most so I definately will be looking yours up! Do you have a web site of your own as an author? I loved GONE WITH THE WIND too. There was a store that closed recently and I got a limited edition at a great price of the DVD’s of it. So I can’t wait to read again. I haven’t read a Kathleen Woodiess in years but did recall reading some of my mom’s books of hers, just not sure which. I read lots of Victoria Holt and her gothic romances! So many great memorable authors!
Melody, I didn’t realize all the books you have written! Do you find writing romance harder than your horror books?
Too what authors you enjoy reading of romance? Too, can you lead us to your site too. Thanks! I’m re-bookmarking my links
The Not So Victorian Viscount sounds like something I would really love. Marie, did you have to do much research for it? It sounds like it is going to be wonderfully descriptive of Hong Kong during that time. I have always loved learning about ancient Chinese culture.
I might have just missed the summary on here for In Trysts, but I went and read it on your website, Melody. I absolutely love it that Camellia has her Master’s degree. I have never once read any book where the heroine has more than her BA/BS. I love the whole idea of a female Robin Hood. In Trysts sounds wonderful!
Thanks for the great interviews Mandy!
Cathie:
My website is http://www.MarieCarroll.com (alas, I’m not too “techie,” either, as you say, but you can see my Peke there). (Actually, there’s often a reference to a Pekingese in my book — and one in particular, Poppy, plays a big role in THE NOT-SO-VICTORIAN VISCOUNT.
My blog can be found at http://www.mariecarroll.blogspot.com — it’s a potpourri of different things that catch my fancy!
I’m going to mention your newsletter idea to my publisher.
Marie Carroll
Mandy B.:
I love all things Asian and have always, always been interested in Chinese history. I actually took a grad course in it years ago at Penn w/ a professor who had been a prisoner there for a time during the Cultural Revolution. I was doing really well until it came time to write the paper and I discovered I couldn’t really master the microfiche machine. Students today have no idea how lucky they are that the computer has rendered those things useless (as they pretty much actually were).
I’ve been a guide in art museums for years and Asian art is my specialty. So, by now, I’ve learned enough to know that I really don’t know very much — but it’s a kick to keep learning more.
I’ve been to Hong Kong often and the last time I was there, I actually visited a colonial mansion that was a museum — so that was the setting for St. Alban’s house.
Marie Carroll
They don’t offer any courses like that at my school- undergrad or graduate level. I can imagine that was a very neat and interesting class though- especially with your professor. I’ve never heard of a microfiche machine is- LOL. It sounds like I’m really lucky! That is so neat that your specialty is Asian art- I have always loved it. I actually used an Asian theme for my webpage (it’s just myspace). How wonderful that you incorporated the Colonial Mansion you visited into your book. As a reader, it’s always neat to know when a setting is inspired by a real place.
Marie, when I was coming back today, I realized that the end of the blog post here had some links. I didn’t realize I just had to press the word “website” to get me there, I thought the link was missing. LOL There’s an example of me being not techy! I definately will go check out your blog! Oh I agree on the computers giving so much info now at the tip of their fingers. I lived in the library pretty much when doing my research for my papers in HS and college (plus I loved to work there to grab all the new books that came out). I’m not good with artists names or anything, but I loved painting (watercolors, acrylics and pencil) through HS and college when I had the time. I almost went to college for it but ended up that it would be my hobby instead. I love to visit art galleries to see the victorian and regency paintings. So beautiful!
Yes, Mandy, you’re lucky you don’t know what a microfiche machine is. As I recall, it’s something you have to request from the stacks at the library, wait while they retrieve it. I think it was even more condensed microfilm, which came in spools like old film-strips (you probably don’t remember those either). By the time you wrestle the strips or the card into the machine, which is harder to focus than a telescope set up for a lab final (where you are the kid w/vision at one end of the spectrum, in line behind the kid with the vision at the other end of the spectrum) you are at your wits’ end.
I’m still struggling to crack MySpace, too!
Marie Carroll
Cathie:
I’m not good w/ Asian artist’s names, either. They’re sort of like the names in a Russian novel — so very different, you have trouble remembering them. I just like to like what I like. And speaking of Victorian — I adore the English Pre-Raphaelites!
Marie Carroll
:smash: Microfiche :smash:
I and a couple others had to prep 10 yrs of Corp. documents. Then I was assigned to proof the Fiche sheets before allowing the originals to be shredded. It turned into a 3 month Project to the exclusion of my regular duties. :run:
Whoa, Blue Valkerie, THREE months of microfiche!!! You’re a better man than me, Gunga Din! And I was wrestling w/ that stuff back when my eyes (not to mention, me) were young. That’s the worst thing about getting older, your eyes going. (Of couse, there is the bright side that when you look in the mirror, you don’t see as many sags and lines!) I can remember a time when I used to do cross-stitch white-on-white on 22-count material. Now, I can’t put on jewelry w/o the drugstore glasses! (And I did have to invest in the long-view kind when the Student Prince was in the school choir. I mean, you can always spot your kid from 100 miles, because you know his twitches and mannerisms. But I like to know who the other twitchers are!
Marie Carroll
Hi, Cathie!
I didn’t mean to ignore you. I’m catching up on some of my uni classes and didn’t realize someone had written more. Sorry!
I do find my romances more difficult to write. With horror or SF, I can always do more research and find something to speed up the action (crucial to have a thrilling horror novel!). With romance, you’re looking more for the responses from the two main characters to provide the action.
Granted, there are certain kinds of research activities you can do to “flesh out” your romance, you have to have an agreeable partner (LOL). At least with SF, I don’t have to conduct lab experiments or turn myself into a mutant for realism.
Thanks, Cathie!
Gunga Din! :DD
I won’t say what year, but sufice it to say I am nolonger in my early twenties. Nor am I able to beadweave with the 11/0 Miyuki Japanese Delica http://www.miyuki-beads.co.jp/english/seed/e-samplecard.html without glasses.
Blue Valkerie:
Wow — I’ve never heard of those, but I clicked on the link — what beautiful things! Bead stores are very popular here, but most of the things are much larger than that (last time I looked). i took a jewelry class once, but it was working w/ silver, not beads. (I’ll do most anything not to dust and vacuum!)
Marie Carroll
Mandy:
Thanks so much for hosting Linden Bay this week. It’s really been fun!
Marie Carroll
Marie- Oh yeah, I know ALL about microfilm! It blows my mind now all you have to do is sit down at your computer, search and click to get the information you want. No more searching through spools and sitting at the lightbox!
Blue Valkerie- don’t feel bad, I don’t think ANYONE can beadweave delicas without glasses. I can’t even tell you how many grams I’ve dropped in the carpet only to be sucked up by the vacuum. What a waste!
Marie
I have been doing beadwork in one form or another since I was 4. When a neighbor/babysitter let me play with her spare Girl Scout beads. The wood ones and the ones called “Pony” beeds.
Mandy B.
beads + carpet = :bang: vacuum :bang:
That is why I use a sheet of felt in a tray. Even when doing silver wire wrap work.
My favorite resource http://www.shipwreckbeads.com
Shipwreck Beads! Things I don’t know how I’ve lived w/o! And I really, really needed another arty project! Leaving now to take out and second mortgage and place an order,
Marie
:CNOEV: A fellow bead addict. :dnc: