The idea came to me while on vacation a few years ago. I wanted to write a series of books about bookstores—not a single bookstore and multiple books about that, but about multiple bookstores in small towns across America. My problem? I didn't know what the point would be. What connected those Continue Reading
New Release
Trashy Reality Shows: A Media Menace or Guilty Pleasure Time Wasters?
I never saw the first season of Survivor. It didn't appeal to me, but something someone said about it made me curious after the season ended. So, when Season 2 came along, I watched it. That was the one with church elder Rodger and sweet Elizabeth. It was fun, interesting, and I actually enjoyed Continue Reading
Announcing the Release of My New Mail-Order Bride Novel
I spent hours trying to figure out what I wanted to do for this post. Did I want to write about how women "built" the west? Did I want to talk about the hardships of homesteading? Maybe sharing how little has changed in the trafficking worlds of the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. Both Continue Reading
How Do You Write an Exciting Fairy Tale Retelling as a Mystery?
One of my all-time favorite movies is Something in the Wind with Deanna Durbin and Donald O’Connor. No, Donald doesn’t get the girl. When did he ever? Sigh. But there is a song that gets me every time. It explains so much about why I LOVE a good mystery! To get a few of what is going on during Continue Reading
Why Did I Write a Terrible Ballad to Share My Book’s Backstory?
"Her parents' deaths?" The moment I thought of it, the answer was no. Did not want to start my book with something like that. Too far back and too depressing. There were so many possibilities. The book would be partially epistolary--just one letter at the beginning of each chapter--so I Continue Reading
Why I Think Friends are Some of Life’s Best Blessings
I sat at my desk and looked around me. The new kid. Again. There were only about six other kids in the school. Only one anywhere near my age. At eight, I'd never had a "best friend." Honestly, I'd never had a real friend--just friendly classmates and a neighbor girl who was friendly unless her Continue Reading
Is It Any Wonder That I’d Use Paper for Creative Endeavors?
A paper filled with lines, shapes, and color blocked the words on the page of my book. I looked up into the wide, excited eyes of my youngest daughter, and like nearly every parent who ever lived, I said, "Oh! That's... Well, what is it?" With that optimistic confidence that only toddlers seem Continue Reading
Weddings Can Be Great Fun or Utterly Boring. It’s All about Perspective
I felt sorry for them. My daughters stood at the front of the building in "heels" (for them anyway) and cradling branches (yes BRANCHES) of lilacs in their arms. And the wedding sermon droned on. For over an hour. No joke. No exaggeration. Some of the girls shifted. Fidgeted. I didn't blame Continue Reading
The Best Combo Is a Great Book, a Delicious Cookie, & Sweet Tea
Picture it. My husband at a drive-thru with 9 kids in the van and an order as long as your arm. He begins. "I'd like a Chicken, Bacon, and Swiss, two--" "Would you like that as a combo?" Concentration lost, he blinks at the screen before catching on. "No, no. Two, ham and cheese..." As Continue Reading
The Exciting Fairy Tale I Never Wanted To Tell
You see them everywhere. Sometimes it's done deliberately--someone retelling a familiar story in a new setting with a twist. Other times, it's accidental and even the author goes, "Oh! Yeah." What am I talking about? Retellings. Whether Austen characters and storylines or Shakespeare, Robin Continue Reading
The Best Marriage Advice We Got Accidentally
"You guys have something going for you." I don't know if my fiance said "What's that?" or just looked at him waiting to hear what our genius thing was, but he continued. "You were friends first. You've got something to hold you together if the romance dies." Little did he know he was Continue Reading
Can We Create an Amazing Garden in the Desert?
Truth be told, I don't know. Some do. We have gorgeous gardens here in Ridgecrest (which is only an hour from Death Valley... just for reference). None of those gorgeous gardens have ever grown at our house, aside from that amazing crop of corn we had one year. Usually, we are content to grow Continue Reading
