One of the highlights of my year was spending a couple of hours talking to David Rawlings last May. He was on the show (Episode 12) to talk about his upcoming (now released) novel. After we finished an interview about his writing and his upcoming release, Where the Road Bends, he stayed online to Continue Reading
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Announcing: The Top Foodie Items You Loved
Well, I think we've established that I am not part of the cool crowd. Everyone has their favorites... I'm just not one of them. Want me to prove it? Well, let's look at the foodie contest winners! I had seven chances to "win" the contest between the authors from our "Foodie release" and... Continue Reading
What Is So Great about Listening to Audiobooks?
I blame my friend Cathe Swanson for my first entry into the wonderful world of audiobooks. While I'd bought them for my children (and enjoyed Narnia, and the Melendy Series on audio), I never had listened myself. However, after hearing her rave about Barbara Rosenblat... hold the phone. Must tell a Continue Reading
Why I LOVE The Black Midnight & This New Author
Okay, she's not a debut author, but she is new to me! When I learned that she'd written a book in the True Colors Crime Series, I knew The Black Midnight would be my first Y'Barbo book. Come on. Pinkertons, Jack the Ripper, and Queen Victoria??? Count me in! NOTE: I'm only three chapters into Continue Reading
Beware the Dreadful Scrooge! A Deadly Christmas Disease
She sent messages as she wrote--little things that delighted her, frustrating moments when characters wouldn't behave, the works. I just watched it all come together. If you've never seen a book baby grow and be born, you've missed out on a whole lot of fun. As usual, I made a note to order Continue Reading
5 Delightful Reasons You’ll Love These Books
“Read Laura Hile’s ‘mercy books,’” she said. “You’ll love them,” she said. “She was right,” I say. That was about ten years ago and my introduction to today’s guest! What a delightful writer! What hilarious books! Add to those more about those characters we love so well, and what isn’t Continue Reading
Time to Spice Up Your Life—and Your Reading!
Have I lost my ever-lovin' mind? Am I now writing "Christian erotica?" Excuse me while I laugh and hurl at the same time. Oops. One more. Just a second. Okay, now that I'm back down to chortles and snickers at the idea I could even manage it if I wanted to (anyone who knows me knows I'm Continue Reading
Crazy Things Historical Authors Have to Research
Most readers have a good idea that historical fiction requires heaps and heaps of research. It's obvious that you have to find out what happened when and similar details, but what other sorts of things do authors uncover, and do those things ever spark new ideas? Cultural norms, seemingly Continue Reading
Ready for the Great Stories from This Exciting Contest?
This week is the final episode in our three-part series on classic retellings, continuing stories, and mashups with Sandy Barela from Celebrate Lit Publishing. Before we get to the brainstorming session (the last part of a nearly two-hour recording that I broke up), I gave a short, mini-gush about Continue Reading
What Crazy Idiot Would Ever Want to Learn Greek?
"Is Chautona ever going to go to college?" My cousin and I are the same age. While she was at Fresno State getting her degree, I was home raising babies. Three of them at the time she asked my mom that question. Mom said, "No... she's just learning what she wants to when she wants to." Said Continue Reading
Can this Retelling Make Me Love a Book I Never Liked?
I was that kid—the one who loved fairy tales and imagined herself as the heroine, the sidekick (okay, I didn't do much Disney as a kid so I had to make those up), and occasionally as the villain (when the protagonist was just too meh to be interesting). Still, there were a few that I just couldn't Continue Reading
How One Simple Comment Inspired This Episode
So, we were supposed to be going over the final story mashups and retellings with Sandy Barela, but then something happened today that changed all that. For the past four weeks, I've been putting my bestselling series, Past Forward, free. This serial novel comprises six volumes and over half a Continue Reading
