Dishes piled in the sink, laundry piled on the couch, stuff piled everywhere else. I'd love to say it never happens. Oh, how I would. But, it does. Usually, in the last couple of weeks of a book, I get tunnel vision and everything kind of falls apart. And that's when it happens. Note: Continue Reading
How I Found My Greatest Strength
So what would you say is your greatest strength?” Pen tapping, eyes piercing through and reading my panicked, racing heart, I saw it. You know what I’m talking about. That moment when someone realizes you are a total fraud. It’s always worse when they know before you do. Um… I take orders really Continue Reading
How Murder Ruined My Mystery
Leon Czolgosz is my new nemesis. He’s dead, but he ruined my book. No, really. The guy totally destroyed the opening pages of Such a Tease. Now, these days, not a whole lot of people remember the name of Leon Czolgosz. I didn’t. But I’ll never forget him now (although I may never remember how to Continue Reading
So You Think Modern Life Is a New Concept?
Links in this post may be affiliate links, which provide me with a small commission at no extra expense for you. Modernity is relative. “Our grandmothers would turn in their graves, but after all, these are modern times.” I don’t know if that’s an exact quote or a paraphrase, but Ma Ingalls said Continue Reading
Buried Secrets by Rachel J. Good: a book review
Buried Secrets. Don’t know about you, but the title makes me think of some archaeological mystery. I could almost see Amelia Peabody with her parasol standing over workers, demanding they be more careful. “Emerson, I think this poor mummy was shot! That’s not possible! They didn’t have guns. Great, Continue Reading
1 Super Easy Way to Plot Your Novel on the Run
The cursor blinks--endless, relentless. That blank page stares at you, taunting, haunting. Head in hands, we sit there, begging our brains to work. But nothing... nothing. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. (or so I'm told). There are a million solutions out there for the malady. Authors write long books about Continue Reading
Sequels I Want to Write: or my literary ADD
We all have our faults--those little things that make us unique. Some of us are just more unique as others. Add that to a unique name, a unique lifestyle--my whole life--and a unique almost everything else, when you add in those faults, it gets a mite... much. Me, I'm riddled with faults. Since Continue Reading
7 Guilty Pleasures (Why does that just sound wrong?)
Romance novels. That's what the industry calls them. People have other names for the "real" thing. You know, like "bodice rippers." I've heard that one a lot. I have my own names for them. Or, rather, I came up with a few as a cathartic way to deal with today's blog post. How about "Blush Continue Reading
Murder on the Moor by Julianna Deering: a Book Review
Did he do it? He's a philandering cad, but is he guilty of fraud? Of swindling? Of murder? For months these questions have battered my brain as I've sent Madeline on the trail of a new pseudo-mystery in her quest to learn just how to use these skills she's still only discovering. Franky, my Continue Reading
3 Icky Words: Sorta, Anyway
"Seeds." Such an innocuous word. However, if I want to make a friend of mine squirm, all I have to do is say, "Seeds." Seriously, the gal almost turns green. And it's all my fault. Look, some people have trouble with words like moist or cervix. I happen to have friends that squirm at both of Continue Reading
A Book by Any Other Title: or Something Like That
The incessant blink of the cursor taunts me as I stare at a blank page gripped by a rare malady known as "titler's block." Look. Everyone's heard of its cousin, "writer's block." He doesn't even bother knocking at my door. Why? Because I have enough book ideas to last me a century. And that Continue Reading
Unraveling the Tangles of Common Writing Rules:
The note on my manuscript read: "You're telling us about this. Show us." And I had no idea what that meant. I remember reading articles, asking questions, reading more. Rewriting--and rewriting again, only to have the next comment arrive. "This is very passive." Huh? In school, Continue Reading
