Through no fault of his own, Ellison Stewart had the looks and charisma of a 1940’s movie star. There was a lot of discussion about which one exactly; older women mentioned Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power, younger women said “Who?” and sighed when he passed. Tall, dark and handsome said it all. And he hated it.

Ellison had no sooner leveled a look at the matron in the pro shop who was fumbling all the golf balls off the shelves than he regretted it. How much more of his life was he going to have to put up with women going all slack-jawed when they first got a good look at his face? This lady had actually fallen over.

Maybe it was time for him to seriously consider plastic surgery, he thought. Or get fat, which was another option he had recently considered.

She smiled up at him, still with that stunned look on her plump face. Everyone in the pro shop was waiting to see what he would do.

To be continued…Excerpt from The Cowboy’s Baby, a romance by Gretchen Lee Rix, copyright July 2010. www.amazon.com/The-Cowboys-Baby-ebook/dp/B003UYUVZC.

Originally this novel had a prologue that started with “The dingoes have taken my baby” line from the Meryl Streep movie and continued through a detailed kidnapping scene and the breakdown and eventual recovery of my main character Cassandra Lennon. But I decided to throw it all out and start here, and with the other main character instead. (I still have the prologue on file if I want to look at it).

The tone of the prologue was so at odds with the tone of the rest of the novel I knew it would not work. Plus, they say don’t start with a prologue anyhow. I’ve got another novel I’ve been working on that I have the sneaking suspicion I’ll have to toss the first four chapters before I come to the true beginning of the story. Talk about painful!

My point? This is going to happen to you, too. Don’t be so attached to your prose or a subplot that you can’t recognize the dead weight.

Of note to Central Texans–Something fun to do in late August: www.armadillocon.org. And somewhere great to eat anytime except Mondays: www.cottonseedcafe.com

This is how my romance novel The Cowboy’s Baby got its start–with membership in Romance Writers of America®.

I’ve belonged to RWA® twice, once more than ten years ago, and currently beginning in August of 2008. This professional writers organization is the only one I know that accepts unpublished writers as full members. But the rule is that you have to be serious about making romance writing your career (though they don’t really check).

So, more than ten years ago I used the RWA® to give me a goal–a completed novel. They also gave me the title of my book, The Cowboy’s Baby. An article in their trade magazine at the time said using the words cowboy or baby in the title got you more readers. So The Cowboy’s Baby should have been a double whammy. (FYI, I’m not the only one who saw that article and ran with it. There are several The Cowboy’s Baby romances out there right now.)

So, now I had a title and two characters–the cowboy and the baby, and I had the genre–romance, and I had the stick to make me work–the  RWA® requirements for membership.

Next came the setting. To make it easier, I used something from my own history. My parents lived for decades in a gated golf-community with three lakes, a swimming pool, a club house, restaurants, marina, the whole shebang. At one time there were even stables and horses. I visited regularly. So this is what I used, and when I started The Cowboy’s Baby, the first image that came to me was that of a white cat trotting across the golf greens with a pink collar around his neck. That was what was in my mind when I started.

So, now I had the setting (golf community), the time period (contemporary), and another character (the cat). Eventually I put all that together and it led to the emergence of our hero–Ellison Stewart, handsome manager of the golf community. But what about the cowboy and the baby?

Well, the next thing that popped into my mind was the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, and I decided to use it as a frame for TCB. I don’t remember why. I’ve always enjoyed books that touch on the old tales, so maybe that was it. And using Sleeping Beauty gave me a layer of plot and it gave me our heroine–Cassandra Lennon, the wealthy recluse whose property abutting the residential resort is surrounded by rose-covered walls.

Stick to make me work ( RWA®),  genre (romance), time (contemporary), setting (residential gated community with all the amenities including a golf course), plot device (Sleeping Beauty fairy tale), and lead characters (manager of the golf community, and then the wealthy recluse living nearby). And I still didn’t have a cowboy or a baby. But I started writing it at that time anyhow.

I won’t tell you about the cowboy because that would be a spoiler. But what happened with the baby was this–I got three chapters into writing and had some character say “Help! The cowboy’s baby is going to get me!” (or something like that), and I  blanked out. I couldn’t think of anything interesting enough to elicit that response. I was stopped dead in my tracks and I set TCB aside and didn’t start writing on it again until 2008 when, again, membership in the  RWA® required that I be writing on a romance. It sat for ten years or more while I did other stuff, including starting several more novels that petered out after four or five chapters. But when I sat down in December 2008 and took up The Cowboy’s Baby again and wrote on it every day, I was able to complete it. And I’m proud of what I accomplished.

 Here it is. Have a look.

  www.amazon.com/The-Cowboys-Baby-ebook/dp/B003UYUVZC. 

The Scare The Dickens Out of Us ghost story writing contest is a competition my sister and I originated and administer as part of the “A Dickens Christmas In Lockhart” festival that takes place here  the first weekend in December. It’s a fun little festival that is the library’s way to thank the people of Lockhart. This is the second year of our ghost story writing contest. Non-spoooky photo at left is by Roxanne Rix.

We are offering a $1000.00 first prize, $500.00 second prize and $250.00 third prize (plus a trophy to the winner and ribbons for runners up). There is also a Junior contest for ages 12-18 that offers $250.00 and a trophy for first place.

Besides the money (which is pretty good), winners also get their names in our local newspaper. We’ll display your name on our website page for the next year. If you are local, we might even take you out for lunch. The winning entry will be read at the library’s annual Dickens luncheon in December and all winners will be formally announced at the Dickens festival ceremony.

This contest is primarily a fundraiser for the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas, the library being the oldest continuously in use library in the state, so there are entry fees. This contest is privately funded.  All entry fees go to the Friends for library projects. Entry fees are $20.00 and $5.00. Contest deadline is October 1, 2010.

Full rules are available at www.clarklibraryfriends.com.

You’ve got plenty of time to write a great ghost story and get it in. We have received entries all through July and expect the number to double in August. Anyone can enter. We’ve gotten queries from South Africa, Australia and Canada. Already we have gotten entries from New York, Indiana, Maryland, Texas, Connecticut and California.

No publication is involved in this contest and no critiques are offered. All rights remain with the authors. When the contest is over you are welcome to submit your stories anywhere you want. Check out www.duotrope.com. There are markets for ghost stories out there.

Last year I think I went to the post office every day to check for entries. This year I swore I wouldn’t go over there every day, only twice a week, but there’s nothing like seeing that big brown envelope (or the long white envelopes some writers are using) in the PO Box. And I’m really looking forward to getting that first entry from a foreign country. I’ve still  been going almost every day to check.

In the meantime I’ve also had time to read Rebel Island by Rick Riordan. It’s set in the Aransas Pass coastal area of Texas during a hurricane. I loved it. www.amazon.com/Rebel-Island-ebook/dp/B000VSW7U2

The Cowboy’s Baby is getting a book launch party next Saturday night at the Lockhart library and you’re invited. From 6-7 pm August 7 some of my friends and family and the Dr. Eugene Clark Library will help me celebrate the publication of my first novel. Our party is open to the public. This is in Lockhart, Texas, mind you. We’re close to Austin and San Marcos and Luling and Bastrop. www.lockhartlibrary.org.

We’re serving tasty snacks (including delicious cupcakes from the Baker’s Rack), giving away some twenty hard copies of chapter one, giving away a few free books and maybe even a Kindle. (How do you give away free copies of an electronic book, I hear you ask. Well, we pay you to buy it and take it on your honor that you will. It’s only $2.99).

We’re showing off the book cover poster Molly made for us. And we’re displaying the Kindle application downloaded to three of the library’s computers. The Cowboy’s Baby is right there to read, along with Pride and Prejudice and Treasure Island and more. They look fantastic. There will be no readings and no speeches. Think cocktail party without the booze. Roxanne wants us to set up our Kindle DX and have the computer read TCB to us while we smooze. I don’t know about that.

This book launch party is an example of what a writer’s life entails, and it’s also part of my marketing strategy, which is part of how I wrote and published my first e-book. Generally a book launch would include book signings. Well, this is an electronic book, so there’s nothing to sign.

Honestly, I don’t expect anyone to want my autograph next Saturday, but I’ll sign a piece of paper if wanted; after all, I’m the little girl who once asked for the autograph of the uncle of one of her grade school friends just because he was a soldier. Combat was a hit TV show at the time (this was the sixties) and I was army-crazy, even had the helmet and mess kit set from the show. (Wish I still had them). So I’ll take a pen just in case. This type of marketing used to be handled by traditional publishers, but more and more of  it is now the responsibility of the author on her own, and in the case of a self-published electronic book, it’s all the author’s responsibility.

Writers get out there and sign books and talk to readers. The emergence of electronic books requires some creative thinking to get the same results. Hence the launch party, and the blog, and the new Twitter account. Both The Cowboy’s Baby and I are just getting started. Come out next Saturday and meet us.

The photo in this blog was taken by Roxanne Rix.

This week I read Blockade Billy by Stephen King. It was really short. If you like baseball you’ll like it better than if you don’t. It’s good. www.amazon.com/Blockade-Billy-ebook/dp/B003HKR18Y

I’ve waited a long time to slap the title Rix Cafe American on something of mine (Casablanca, you understand), and as you can see, it’s undergone a bit of a change–it’s Texican now.  This blog is to be mostly a writer’s blog.  Sorry, but it has nothing to do with restaurants or bars (more about that later). It will be about how I write and why, and what I write and read; it will be about the writer’s life as I see it. The level I am at as a writer (in my estimation I’m about second from the bottom of the totem pole of experience and success, there being about five levels) will be relevant to many of you. 

My blog will also be about the Scare The Dickens Out of Us ghost story writing contest and library fundraiser that my sister Roxanne and I originated and coordinate for the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library.  Our library in Lockhart, Texas is the oldest continuously-in-use library in the state and is an architectural gem. Our contest is in its second year and offers a $1000.00 first prize for the winning ghost story, plus several other money-winning categories. Check it out at www.clarklibraryfriends.com. 

And, from time to time, I’ll blog about things unrelated to writing, like good places to eat in Central Texas (the Cottonseed in Martindale) and interesting things to do (you just missed the corpse flower blooming in Houston, Texas, but the Magic exhibit is still there). There will be guest blogs from other writers and maybe some book give-aways. For grins, go to www.freekibblekat.com. 

All the photos you’ll see here were taken by Roxanne Rix. My sister’s goal is to eventually win the State Fair of Texas photography contest, or die trying. At any rate, it gives us an extra excuse to go to the State Fair each year, something we have not done regularly since we were teenagers or younger. 

Let me introduce myself. I am Gretchen Rix, and Gretchen L. Rix, and Gretchen Lee Rix and I have written a Kindle novel The Cowboy’s Baby. 

www.amazon.com/The-Cowboys-Baby-ebook/dp/B003UYUVZC. 

Really good book I read this week–Revise The World by Brenda W. Clough. 

 www.amazon.com/Revise-The-World-ebook/dp/B002VWLLYO