A lot of would-be authors, and even some published authors, mistakenly believe that writing a story is muse-driven.  They cannot write unless the muse is upon them, pouring forth with their creativity, and shutting out the world for a time, almost as if they’ve received a vision from On High like a prophet of God.

While we would all love to write in such a way, there are times when you stare at the flashing cursor on the blank screen for hours.  There are times when you literally write a line or two and sit there to think about what to do next.  There are times when you actually avoid your project because you just don’t know where to go or what comes next.

But what a lot of authors don’t realize is that writing is a j-o-b.  If you want to  make any money at this gig, you’ve got to EARN your income.  You can’t wait for the miraculous muse to sprinkle her manna from heaven.  Sometimes, you’ve just got to sit down and make yourself write!

Write…what?

ANYTHING!

For me, to break through my writer’s block, I need to loosen my fingers along with my imagination.  The way I do this is to decide whose point of view the new scene is in and jump in.  Begin with their thoughts of what happened the chapter before.  Move the plot forward with some internal conflict.  Get into their head.  Once I do that, I find that the floodgates open and I can write again.

But sitting down and just doing it takes discipline.  I avoided my current project for a few days because of this problem of not knowing where to go next.  The main plot of the book was finished, I only have some wrap up to do.  But it’s the end of the book that can sometimes lull for an author.  Either they love the book too much to let it end, or the excitement of the plot is over and tying things together with a pretty bow can be a chore.

Today, I decided to just sit down and write.  See where it took me.  What transpired was, perhaps, the most tender and pivotal love scene in the book.  They’d already *said* their I love yous earlier on, however, what I wrote was a scene where they “showed” their love for each other in soft caresses and sweet sighs, with no words to speak of.

I challenged myself to make it different, as after you’ve written X amount of books, you begin to have a pattern to your writing style.  I didn’t want it to be a throw-away love scene that you could cut and paste into any of my other books.  And what it became was probably my favorite scene from the book.

You never know where “just sit down and write” will take you.  But everyone on the planet has only 24 hours a day.  Some of us struggle to find the time to write, while others have loads of time on their hands.  But one thing’s for sure.  The successful authors are the ones who just sat down and wrote, regardless if the TV was on, regardless if the kids were playing, regardless if the DH is home.  True, we all have responsibilities to take care of, but when those are all said and done, anything less than just sitting down and writing is an excuse NOT to write.

Nine times out of ten, we’ll NEVER get that coveted time alone, that quiet time, where we can pour forth our muse.

And let’s face it — even if you DO get that quiet time…how many of you are playing online rather than writing?  **raises hand**  Oh, I’m guilty of that, believe me.

But there comes a point in every writer’s life where they have to suck it up and just DO IT!  Perhaps, like me, you’ll find yourself writing the most inspiring scene of your book. 

~~Becka

2010 was a productive year for me.  It brought a string of rejections that I was able to turn into sales.  BLACK ANGEL, RIDE THE LIGHTNING, THE FALL OF JERICHO, & RENEGADE were all rejected, but were snatched up by Champagne Books and Cobblestone Press.

It brought the return of my BEAST series (OMG Mac..*drool*) and the introduction of a new erotic series about Desert Princes, which people seem to like a bit. 

I was discovered by eBook pirates, but I’m not complaining — too much.  Since I’ve been “discovered”, my sales have gone up, so I suppose once they read one book they like, they buy the rest.   And unbelievably, my fantasy novella, KINDRED, did amazingly well in sales.  Better than I ever thought it would do.  I don’t know what it was about that little book.  Dragon shifters?  Word of mouth?  I don’t know.  But it was a pleasant surprise for me.

I spent the rest of the year finishing that Desert Princes series (it was so much fun!), and I’ve finally begun a new Western, the sequel to IN YOUR ARMS, a book for Shirley Bloom.  It’s also erotic, entitled HEART OF A SCOUNDREL that I’m about halfway through currently.

I decided about halfway through the year to quit chasing the Golden Carrot of NY publishing.  Not because I didn’t think I was good enough, and not because of my rejections.  But because I truly believe eBooks are the wave of the future, and more and more people are buying Kindles and Nooks every day.  If I can be the Best Darn eBook Author I can be, then score!  I would love to be well-known as a best selling eBook author.  Wouldn’t it be awesome to get as well-known as a NY author, but NOT be pubbed in NY?  I think it would be pretty darned sweet.  So that’s my new goal in my writing career–write as many books as I can, reach as many people as I can, and become a Big Name without the springboard of NY.  Anything can happen in five years…

(….so tell your friends and help me make this a reality!  lol….)

And then I had my whole wrist debacle.  UGH.  I still don’t know what’s going on in there.  I think for now, there’s nothing more doctors can do for me.  But it took the entire year to come to that conclusion.  However, I did score surgery on my wrist that helped me tremendously, so it wasn’t a complete failure.  But I can work throughout the day without my brace on 24/7.  That’s a win in my book.

It was a wild ride, 2010.  Up and down, rejections and sales, and too much dang time waiting on doctors to find out what the heck was wrong with me.  Let’s hope 2011 brings all kinds of great tidings!

~~Becka

Good bad news?  What is that?!  Well, the short version: Doc didn’t find anything wrong.  Good news because nothing is wrong — bad news because nothing is wrong.  There is nothing further my doctor can do for me.

He suggested I go see a rheumatologist.  In his experience, patients who present with “phantom” pain are often diagnosed a year or two down the road with a condition that gives hindsight to the pain, such as rheumatoid arthritis.  Even though the bone scan showed no inflammation (I don’t understand how that’s possible), it is still in my best interest to get checked out.  There is no cure for RA, however, early treatment can work wonders, apparently.

The doc did give me a blood test back in May that came up negative for RA, however, he mentioned it’s not as detailed as a blood test a rheumatologist would give me.  And since my mother has it, there is a chance I could get it too.

I just think it’s so odd that nothing showed up.  A bone scan can see inflammation, hairline fractures, ligament tears, infections…  There was nothing.  It looked exactly the same as my “healthy” side.  Couple that with my doctor mentioning the cortisone shot I had didn’t do anything for me, he just has no idea what’s wrong with me.

I’d thought maybe my doc had missed something on the MRI, but you’d think whatever they missed would have shown on the bone scan.  I just don’t understand it.  I do have other aches and pains in many of my other joints.  My ankles and knees are stiff a lot.  My shoulders ache sometimes.  But I’m overweight.  I don’t have the best diet.  I do chores throughout the day.  I have five kids.  A normal person is bound to have aches and pains, right?

Maybe this is a good thing.  Maybe this is all a symptom of something that has nothing to do with my TFCC.  But if the rheumatologist can’t find RA, I’m back to square one.   I suppose I could get a second opinion since all the various tests have been done, just to have another set of eyes on my films.  I don’t know.  I kind of feel defeated.  I feel like the RA thing is a red herring.  But I’ll do it, just to be able to say, “I did that, it’s not that.”

When/if that point comes, will I just have to live with this?  That…kinda sucks. 

~~Becka

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, folks, but ever since my birthday, I’ve had an obsession with nail polish.  I got a couple of gift certificates to Amazon, and I thought I would use them to buy some eBooks.  And I did.  But the rest of the cards were used to buy nail polish.

I love painting my toenails.  I can’t stand my naked toes, but I usually hate painting them because it’s such a chore, and I hate going to the salon because it’s money I could spend elsewhere.  I do get mani’s and pedi’s every now and again, but most of the time, I don’t like the colors they have on the wall.

And I don’t paint my fingernails because I work so much with my hands typing and doing housework that they chip all the time, usually within 24 hours of painting them, and let’s not even TALK about drying time.  Color on my toes would stay on until the cows came home, but keeping paint on my nails? Fuggettaboudit!

Well, that’s all changed.  I’ve found that the nicer a nail polish is, the longer it will stay on your nails.  And yes, by “nicer”, I mean more expensive than the cheap $1 – $2 polishes we’re wooed into buying.  And a lot of the time, if you have a great topcoat, your manicure will stay on longer as well.

I haven’t been in the “polish” business long, I’ve always had about 7 colors I really liked.  A few glitters, a nice lavender, a black, and a couple of pinks.  Maybe a red.  Now, I have over 30.  It’s boomed in under a MONTH.  Already, I have favorite nail polish lines.  I LOVE Orly and O.P.I.  They go on my nail and they STAY on my nail without chipping.  I currently have Orly’s Fantasea on my fingers for the past 48 hours.  No chipping.  I have Orly’s Flagstone Rush on my toes.  It’s gorgeous!

Recently, I bought almost all of the creme polishes in OPI’s Burlesque line.  There is a glitter from that line I still want to get.  Here are a nail polish reviewer’s swatches on this line:

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2010/10/opi-burlesque-collection-holiday-2010-swatches-review-comparisons.html

I also just bought China Glaze’s Halloween collection called “Awakenings”:

http://beautopia.onsugar.com/China-Glaze-Awakening-Collection-Halloween-2010-10702555

I’ve also bought Space Cadet from Orly’s Cosmic FX line:

http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2010/08/orly-cosmic-fx-fall-2010-collection-swatches-review.html

I’m also getting Galaxy Girl and Out of This World. 

I keep telling myself I only have ten fingers and ten toes.  When am I going to wear all of this polish?  Then again, I don’t wear make-up unless it’s a special occasion, so nail polish makes me feel pretty.    Besides, I just ordered Orly’s Sec N’Dry top coat and I have my hair dryer at the ready to make drying a … forgive me … BREEZE! 

I need to get off of these nail polish review sites.  Now, I want OPI’s Extra-Va-Vaganza and Orly’s Rage.  And does SOMEBODY have a MAC Bad Fairy that doesn’t cost $30?!?

GACK!  SOMEBODY STOP ME!  lol

~~Becka

Okay, okay, dramatic, I know, but hear me out.

I’ve been saturated in the eBook world for years now, long before the Kindle was even a glimmer in Amazon’s eye.  As an author, I firmly believe one must continue reading, not only to study how other authors tell their stories, but to refuel one’s own worn-out muse.  Nothing helps me get back into my writing like reading a good book.

Recently, I picked up a book I hadn’t planned on buying, but it’s by one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to read it.  The prose – fantastic.  The plot – well researched and well executed.  The tension between the hero and heroine – top notch.  But the sex scenes?  Left much to be desired.

In fact, there was only one full love scene, the other two, maybe three, were glossed over and implied.  I can’t even remember if it was two or three.  I think it was three, because the third one was a memory, the “they had reached for each other again in the middle of the night” kind of memory, but no details.  The reason why this disappointed me so much was because the kissing scenes were so hot.

The love scene itself had telling, not showing sentences.  I can understand the author’s idea of making it vague so the reader can fill in the blanks.  But you see, since I’ve been wallowing in the detailed descriptions of the eBook world, I’ve found that despite that the book was solid in it’s own right, I couldn’t bring myself to like it as much as I wanted to.  To give you an example, the author made mention of something like “they spoke whispered promises, only meant for each other…”

….?

Am I the only reader out there who wants to KNOW what those whispered promises are?  In my mind, I feel like I got cheated out of a key moment in these people’s lives.  I wanted to go through their love scenes with them.  Not because I’m a voyeur…but because I firmly believe love scenes show the reader the closest intimate connection two people can have.  And since these two characters were suffering in their own right, I wanted to go with them when they found each other.  It didn’t seem *enough* to me to be told that “he explored her body and she explored his” I wanted to read it.

This is why I believe I’ve been ruined by eBooks.  Not every eBook under the sun is erotic.  Not every eBook under the sun is overly descriptive with sex.  But…I have noticed a trend.  EBooks have more love scenes.  Unless you write for a hotter NY house, I’ve noticed there’s a trend with love scenes from the Big Boys and Girls.  One scene fully fleshed out (if you can call it that) and maybe one or two more, but implied scenes.  EBooks, however, don’t follow this formula.  Even in a non-erotic eBook, you have two or three *fleshed out* love scenes.

But heck, eBooks have never followed a formula, perhaps that is why they have gotten so very popular these days.

I don’t believe adding more love scenes is superfluous.  Not if they drive the plot, especially if the hero and heroine are reunited after a particularly harrowing and scary/stressful/emotional plot point.  I want to read how they come back together.  I don’t read the sex scenes to be titillated.  I read them for the emotional connection.  When two people make love, it is the most intensely emotional and personal thing they can share.  And when that intense emotion and connection is glossed over, the book falls flat to me.

Thinking on the books that I have written, I think they’d feel gutted if I’d glossed over my love scenes.  There are some great moments of connection there.  When Mac and Robyn finally come together after intense anticipation…  When Talon and Alison’s relationship changes from friends to lovers…  When Tariq establishes his dominance over Sabine in a most powerful way…

Is that because I use my own love scenes to drive my plots rather than the love scene being a perk of the book?  Perhaps.  But as a fellow author, I must say I did feel cheated, and I believe it to be because I’ve been ruined by eBooks.

But in a VERY good way.

~~Becka

I’m sitting here, pondering my career as an author, and I must say, I adore it.  Most people don’t get to say that.  Most people have jobs that they don’t absolutely love.  Most people consider their job a “grind”.  Those few people who do find jobs that they’re good at, that they love, are blessed indeed.

And sure, being an author isn’t even my #1 job.  I’m a wife and mommy first, a homemaker, who takes care of my family.  In my house, I wear many hats.  Errand runner, bill payer, maid, cook, teacher.  True, I enjoy some of those jobs better than others, but my writing I absolutely adore.  I don’t adore scooping the cat litter.  I don’t adore going to the grocery store.  But I adore getting on my computer and writing stories of love and triumph.

Perhaps it’s *because* I’m a housewife that I write.  I’ve heard a lot of people mention that lonely housewives write romance novels.  Well, I’m not lonely.  I’m a housewife, true, but I’ve always wanted to do something in this world.  I’ve always wanted to be “somebody.”  Sure, I’m the most influential person in my children’s lives.  I feed them, clothe them, teach them.  Through them, I can indirectly touch the world.

However, I want to touch it myself. (Hehe, that’s what she said…)  Ahem.  lol

There are times when I get stir crazy staying in the house all day long.  But “going out” involves packing up 5 kids – and then supervising those 5 kids wherever we go.  It’s not an easy feat.  I suppose after my other hats are worn, the author hat allows me to whisk away to another world for awhile.  It allows me to give people the happy ending we sometimes know doesn’t happen in real life.

It allows me to build a world my readers can picture.  It takes my readers into MY imagination for a time.  And that’s a powerful thing.

But it also gives me my ME time.  The time I need to recharge to be a better wife and mommy, so I’m not always so stressed out about everything.  It allows me to have control over something, when sometimes I don’t have control over other things.  It’s an outlet of hope, too, in a way, because I control the lives of my characters, and I know that no matter what I throw at them, they’ll always have each other.  And that reinforces my relationship with my hubby.

There are many reasons why I write.   And I love them all.  Without my writing, I’d be staring at these walls, probably feeling a bit trapped in the life I lead.  But I have an outlet that allows me to be creative and share with others.  An outlet that gives me the opportunity to make something of myself and also allows me to keep my sanity.

And a job that can do that is a job you should never take for granted.

~~Becka

I know, I know, boo-the-frick-hoo, Becka.  Most folk don’t even have ONE of those much less BOTH.  Well, in my own defense, both of my gadgets were gifts. I probably would never have shelled out THAT much money for either device for myself.  However, since there are some articles out there and questions swirling about the Kindle vs. the iPad as an eReader, I thought I would throw my thoughts into the ring.

Plain and simple, the iPad can do more.  And with the ability to do more, it is therefore more convenient.

Being the online eBook author that I am, I am married to my email/twitter/facebook/blog.  I’m on umpteen lists and groups, I scour events for promo ops, I send my thoughts out in 140 characters.  I’m an Internet addict, I freely admit.  When the Internet goes down, I feel like Helen Keller.  I begin to devolve.

Now that you understand I’m always “in the know” as much as I can be, then you can understand why I’ve forsaken my Kindle.  I do most of my reading in bed.  And just before I open that eBook, I’m doing my final email checks, Twitter checks, maybe posting an update on Facebook, perhaps surfing the web.  Once I’m done, I open my Kindle App and away I go.  Who wants to put down the iPad, fumble for the Kindle, and try to find your Mighty Bright (or just turn on your light)?  It’s just more…convenient.  I’ve already got it on my lap.

Is Kindle’s eInk more readable?  Yes.  Is Kindle more comfortable to hold?  Yes.  Is Kindle lighter?  Yes.  Is Kindle less expensive?  Yes.  If all you want to do is read eBooks, Kindle is for you.  Or the Nook.  Or the Sony eReader.  Whatever.  But the iPad is for Internet junkies like me.  Those of us who must have their brain jacked into the Matrix 24/7.  It’s too…inconvenient to reach for another device to read an eBook when the iPad can do it too.

Is it a Kindle killer?  For me… yes.  But only because I appreciate all the other things I can do on it.  And I LUVED my Kindle before I had my iPad.  So there are some of you out there who will LUV your Kindle as well.  And maybe there are some hardcore readers out there, who, like me, have both, but still prefer to read eBooks on their Kindle.  I can respect that.  Backlit books can be an eyestrain.

However, I rarely go read on the deck during the day or on the couch (unless I’m sick and forsaking the housework).  Most of my reading is in bed.  And I like to read with the light off.  Which means, I either need the eBook to be backlit, or I’ve got to whip out the Mighty Bright that clips onto my Kindle.  And let me tell you – the name of that thing ain’t lyin’.  It has two lightbulbs.  Even on the lower setting of one bulb, it’s mighty bright, and it might just disturb your bedmate (if you’ve got one).

IPad’s backlit screen, however, isn’t that bright.  You can set the brightness, actually.  It’s not like you’re reading a book in bed with a Maglite.  LOL

I’m not sure what to do with my Kindle at this point.  Thinking of giving it to my daughter, since she loves to read.  It makes me sad, that I have forsaken it.  While it lasted, we had a short, passionate love affair.  But now that I’m in bed with my iPad, I’m in it for the long haul.

~~Becka

Life has a funny way of bringing you down, then bouncing you right back up.  I’ve had a string of both rejections and sales recently, the most recent being the rejection of both THE FALL OF JERICHO and RENEGADE at Carina Press.  While I’m disappointed they don’t like my westerns, I have resolved to sell these two stories, as they happen to be two of my favorites.  (Don’t authors say that about every book they write? lol)

Anyhow, undaunted, I’ve decided to send them both on to Samhain Publishing.  However, my editor is currently slammed with submissions, so she can only do one at a time.  She has JERICHO right now, so RENEGADE will have to cool its boot heels a little while longer.  Don’t worry, intrepid western fans, the book is worth the wait. 

Submitting a book is kind of like throwing magnets at a fridge and seeing which one sticks.  However, I’ve never been one to submit a book at more than one house at the same time.  I guess it just kinda rubs me the wrong way to tell one interested publisher that you’re going with the other guy.  So I torture myself by waiting to see what one publisher has to say before resetting the submission clock.

However, if these rejections have gotten me down, a few positive notes have brought me right back up again.  First of all, I got my first round edits on both RIDE THE LIGHTNING and MARK OF THE B*E*A*S*T*.  Both editors said they really liked the stories, but my editor for MotB said she loved the book and could hardly put it down.  Authors LOVE it when the ol’ ego is stroked.  Heh.

My other editor for RtL gave me a great idea for the ending, which I won’t spoil for you, but kind of brings a clash of future meets past in ideology (since it’s a time travel).  That was unexpected, but I loved it, so I added it in.

Also, a couple of my readers have told me out of the blue that they read, and loved, HIGH NOON, my one and only western (currently) at Samhain.  (Thank you Cindy and Kathy!!)

Through all of this hoopla, I have noticed a new trend with eBook pirates.  They’ve found me.  I’ve hidden from them for years, not finding any of my books on the premiere sites, until a few months ago, it was like the Becka Big Bang, and suddenly everyone was pirating my books.  However, since this amazing, disturbing discovery, I’ve noticed my sales have noticeably been on the rise.  Are these two events related?  Probably.  If a reader reads one book for free and really likes it, sure, they can go back for more freebies with the pirates, or sometimes, they can choose to support the author they’ve pirated.

I’m not advocating eBook piracy here, but I’m choosing to look for the silver lining.  If any of my new readers have found me through nefarious means, all I ask is for you to spread the love and get me more readers.  Support a scrounging author!  LOL   Hey, I love me some hot pirates, but even those pirates, at the end of the book, end up buying the cow, even though they probably already got the milk for free… Heheh

So with this grand turn of events, my many rejections, my few acquisitions, I have made a decision.  I’ve told you about my five year goal – from five years ago – and I tried this year, I really did, to break into the big leagues.  But it seems as if the universe at large is telling me “NO!”  Therefore, I will let go of that dream and concentrate all my will and determination to become the Best Damn eBook Author Ever (or at least the most prolific) and try my hardest to become a Big Fish in this eBook pond. (Which won’t be a pond forever, and is even now probably a lake.  With an outlet to the ocean.)  But until the day when everyone is reading eBooks, I want to build my audience, get people to know and recognize my name in eBook romance, and become more than just a “run-of-the-mill eBook author”.

I’ll be THE Rebecca Goings.  And I’ll be kicking some ass.

~~Becka, who thanks the many editors over the years who’ve rejected her stories, for those rejections have now strengthened her resolve to become a force to be reckoned with in the eBook world.

I’ve been thinking about this topic lately.  I first began thinking about it when one of my husband’s friends asked me if I was still writing those “love” books.  Then he stopped and said, “No, I mean romance, which has nothing to do with love.”

Needless to say, I was perturbed by this comment, but this seemed to be the consensus of my husband and the rest of his guy friends.  “Romance” is the ooey-gooey saccharine-sweet puppy love of flowers and chocolates, while real “love” is enduring, a rock in the storms of life.  As my husband likes to call it, “Love is not a feeling, it’s an act of your will.”  (He gets that from a song lyric, btw. lol)  Basically, what that means is, the lengths you are willing to go for another person.

However, you go online and hundreds (if not thousands) of readers and authors of the romance genre will yell at you until they’re red in the face that the books they read and write are about LOVE, the true, enduring kind.  Some of them even go so far to say it’s splitting hairs, that love and romance are the same thing.

For me, I can see both sides of the coin.  However for me, I believe love and romance go hand-in-hand.  Love is the bond you have with another person that allows you to share life experiences, while romance strengthens that bond.

And I’m not talking about candlelight dinners and skimpy lingerie.

Here’s the definition of romance:

1. A love affair.

2. Ardent emotional attachment or involvement between people; love: They kept the romance alive in their marriage for 35 years.
3. A strong, sometimes short-lived attachment, fascination, or enthusiasm for something: a childhood romance with the sea.
4. A long medieval narrative in prose or verse that tells of the adventures and heroic exploits of chivalric heroes: an Arthurian romance.
5. A long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time or place.
6. The class of literature constituted by such tales.
7. An artistic work, such as a novel, story, or film, that deals with sexual love, especially in an idealized form.
8. The class or style of such works.

Romance, to me, is snuggling.  Holding hands.  Telling your partner they look nice.  Reassuring them you still find them attractive.  Defending them to others, and being their cheerleader when something they’re facing seems too insurmountable.

For those of us who write romance, being told we don’t write about “love” smacks of ignorance.  YES, I see and acknowledge the difference between romance and love.  HOWEVER, by book’s end, both characters are in it for life, they have moved beyond the “omigawdheslookingatmewhatdoido” stage into the “Now let’s build a life together” stage.

And here is the definition of love:

8. (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.

Okay, folks, if you don’t already know, you’re probably not a reader of this blog from way back.  I’m a geek.  I’m a big-time geek.  I’m a Browncoat, I frakkin’ hate toasters, Scorpy and Harvey–I hate to love ‘em, Mr. Spock is my wingman, my best friend is a Wookiee and I’m homeless since my home planet of Gallifrey was destroyed somewhere in the Pegasus galaxy.

My heroes are Wil Wheaton, Bruce Campbell, and Neil Patrick Harris.

I’ve played D&D for 15 years, I love board games, and I’ve sat around with friends and had lengthy end-of-the-world discussions involving certain scenarios and what we would do should the zombies finally attack.

After all this, it shouldn’t be too far of a stretch for you to realize that one of my two favorite sitcoms is…you guessed it…Big Bang Theory.

If you’re not familiar, it is a show about 4 best friends, each a genius, each a geek, and their social ineptitude when it comes to dealing with people.  You have Raj, the man from India who cannot even talk to women unless he’s drunk, Wolowitz, who likes to think he’s a ladies’ man (when he’s anything but), Leonard, who’s had a crush on Penny in 4B since the start of the show (who, of course, is a total hottie), and you have Sheldon, a man who is so far removed from society that he’s almost childlike in the way he deals with the world.

In all the seasons of BBT, we’ve never seen Sheldon “fall in love”.  The seasons have revolved around Leonard, some shows involving Wolowitz, some with Raj, and yes, some with Sheldon, but as Wolowitz has finally found the one girl who can put up with him, I’m thinking perhaps Sheldon should have some time to shine.

You see, Sheldon is my favorite character on the show, and is arguably why the show is so wildly popular (aside from the geeky references you either get or you don’t).  People tune in to see what he would do next.  He seems perfectly happy in his own little world, and needs to have things “just so” in order for his world to flourish.  NO ONE can dare sit in HIS SPOT on the couch.  Every day of the week is a certain take-out meal from different restaurants.  He’s got some OCD going on in there, but he’s such a lovable character, like a young child you just want to take under your wing and protect from reality (even though he’s a grown man).

My point?  Well, I would love for the show to grow a bit.  And by grow a bit, I mean take the focus off Leonard and Penny, Wolowitz and Raj and let Sheldon have a love interest.

True, they would have to tread lightly.  As I’ve stated before, Sheldon is somewhat a fragile snowflake, but if done right, I think they can pull it off.  Obviously, she could not be a genius.  I don’t believe Sheldon could be with a woman “on his level”, as by his very nature, he has a certain arrogance that yes, he really does know what he’s talking about.  I don’t think they should give Sheldon a hottie, as Leonard is the one who went this route.  I don’t even believe they should give him a woman who is a little socially inept herself, like the girl they gave Wolowitz.

No, what Sheldon needs is a GEEK.  And here’s how I’d do it.

The guys hang out regularly at the comic shop.  This is where he should meet her.  And I think she should work there.  The guy who owns the shop could hire a new girl, and she could help Sheldon find some rare and obscure comic.  They could even have a comic-off, meaning “quizzing” each other on their knowledge of comics.

Eventually, she becomes friends with the group, and the guys know Sheldon obviously likes her.  Imagine the comedy gold right there.  The awkwardness of his clumsy courtship, the way she’s willing to put up with him and his quirky-ness.  Knowing Sheldon, he might try to give up or think he’s not worthy, or just plain not know what to DO.  And then you have Wolowitz giving him pointers on how to score with the ladies (OMG, I’m laughing even now), Penny telling him what women want from a man (and Sheldon failing miserably at being a white knight), Leonard telling him to just go for it if he really likes her, and Raj, well…maybe her geekery would be cause enough alone for him to like her, so they can have another player on Halo night (assuming Wolowitz bails due to his new lady love).

I just love Sheldon.  I think he’s quirky, but he’s so dang adorable.  Since I am also a fan of romance (orly?), I often think about what kind of woman would put up with him.  He’s obviously not “dead”, since he managed to get to second base with Penny (not romantically, but she was injured and needed help getting dressed from a fall in the shower) so c’mon, Bill Prady and the writers of the show.  Give us a Sheldon love-interest!  He gets the shaft so often that I feel the poor guy needs a happy ending of sorts, in more ways than one.  And just imagining THAT alone makes me giggle.

Will we ever see Sheldon find a woman, other than Penny, who will sing him Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty?  Please, please, pretty please?!?

Sincerely,

~~Becka