I woke up about the time that my wooden stamp collection rattled off the rails on my wall and onto the floor. A second later, my craft table fell over--just as I leaped out of bed. I made it to the doorway of my closet by the time the thing was really getting hard. And strong. Everything in my Continue Reading
New Release
Want to Know A Super Cool Secret? Persuade Me to Spill the Beans!
Another day, another bunch of fun launch festivities for A Giant Murder by Marji Laine. This is kind of like what we did for The Last Gasp. A Giant Murder is book two in the Ever After Mystery series from Celebrate Publishing, and the series authors are sharing a fun mini blog hop, all looking Continue Reading
What Does DIY Have to Do with Love & Romance?
"What are we writing about for the release of Flipping Hearts?" I think that's when I went, "Um..." for about half an hour. But then it hit me. Flipping Hearts is about the aftermath of Hurricane Arley and its destruction on Hopper Island. Now, no, it wasn't a devastating hurricane. Only a few Continue Reading
I Think You’ll Gasp at Guilty Party in the Great Slipper Caper
Today is DAY 6 of the release fun for the first book in the Ever After Mysteries, The Last Gasp. I’m extra excited because it’s my book! To celebrate the release, all the Ever After authors are doing a short blog hop, complete with a mini-mystery and prizes. We're trying to discover who stole the Continue Reading
The New Bookstrings Series and Spines & Leaves Release
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
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
