Love is worth the risk
I’m writing two very different stories this weekend, and spending a lot of time researching background for both. There are tons of things I need to know, but these are a start. What products were being brought into England by smugglers in 1838? What were the excise issues? Who was importing opium to England in […]
Guilt? I don’t have any guilt. {{Author hides in closet emptying a box of chocolates}} At least no more than most folks. This weeks writing prompt for the #MFRWAuthor blog hop is to list seven guilty pleasures. So I’ll crawl out of my closet and give this a try. No shame here. Candy Crush Saga. […]
I’ve always said I can go for weeks on a few good words. My muse feeds on it. Tell me you like my book, and I’ll hustle to write another one. That said, I may get months of forward energy from this particular review. The March issue of InD’Tale magazine published a review for The […]
This week’s starter in the 52 Week Challenge is “Words that make me go ICK,” or maybe just GAG. Simple enough. I might begin with feces, puke, scabies, worm guts, pustules, zit… Need I go on? My least favorite word? Fuck. I know, I know; it is a good plain Anglo-saxon word that cuts through […]
Well, the ending was worth staying up for even if did run absurdly, insanely long. Warren Beatty gave it to the wrong movie? Unbelievable, but not his fault. As always, the show was a mixed bag, but it had some good moments: The hidden figures actresses introducing the real Katherine Johnson Emma Stone’s dress The […]
As is our routine, I reviewed the family calendar and my convoluted to-do list with Beloved. Why convoluted? I use a tool called Toodledo that lets me assign every task a due date, an importance level, and a category or folder. The web-based tool lets me sort on all three of those. Obviously a task […]
Highlighting Historical Romance: Jan Scarbrough’s My Lord Raven Writing My Lord Raven was a labor of love. It took a long time with many starts, stops, and twists along the way. I fell in love with medieval history and romance in high school with authors Thomas B. Costain and Anya Seton. Later the romance genre […]
I get by with a little help from my friends… I certainly do. Life would be much poorer without that, and that has always been true. In The Four Loves C.S. Lewis describes friendship as the only love that has content. I believe that to be true. Friendship is always based on sharing of some […]
Let me get this off my chest first: I cannot spell. I have been known to spell the same word three different ways on one page. Worse: I cannot proofread. I once earned my living as a tech writer, and a good one. I got reviews that to prove it. They boiled down to “This […]
First draft writing can be a long agony. Once you reach that tender, soul-satisfying conclusion, wipe away a tear, and type The End, you take a deep sigh, certain the story is right. You ask, “Now what?” The temptation is to either a) send it off now because, of course, it is perfect OR b) […]