Love is worth the risk
When I start a new book, I plunge in. I hope my starting point will hold, but sometimes it doesn’t. I had to delete and entire first chapter more than once. Early days I’m in a bit of a dance with my characters, just getting acquainted while introducing them to my readers. I am back […]
Nothing could have prepared us for the current situation, at least not entirely. We are indeed sailing into unknown waters. Our isolation may stretch into weeks or months. We don’t know where we’ll land, but land we will. Will there be dragons? Milk and honey? A radical new land? Home Port? We loath the unknown, […]
The ladies in the basement, the muses that live deep in my unconscious got a bit sleepy over the holidays. My first week back got eaten up by announcements and promotion for Valentines From Bath, (You can check that little treasure out here) but they need to wake up now. I managed to take a look […]
Lately, I’m obsessing on the weather. Winter has been unrelenting and the swings have been dramatic—rather like a well-plotted novel, but much less satisfying. Saturday night we ate out on our patio, enjoying a dead perfect evening—not too hot, not too cold, no bugs, bright sun—knowing full well such evenings are rare. It was 80 […]
Process? I don’t need no stinking process. My book, alas, needs a plot. I’ve read the craft books. I know a scene from a sequel, and I understand the big W shaped romance plot and the four acts that make it up. I get hooks and turning points. I’ve tried outlines, story boards, and scene […]
Where do we begin with gratitude? With the things that gratify, provide instant pleasure, or enhance our ego? With the things in our immediate circle, perhaps, like family and friends? Yes that one I think. The obvious things are faith, which gives direction and foundation of strength, and health, which enables me to build on […]
I should call this post four reasons I’m exhausted before I start this week. The Bluestocking Belles Facebook party to celebrate the launch of Holly and Hopeful Hearts lasted 11.5 hours yesterday and I was there for most of it. Behind the scenes things got a bit frantic, but on the page it went swimmingly. […]
National Novel Writing Month is begins tomorrow and I’m ready. My work in progress has to be finished this month. It has been promised and I will deliver. I can do this, right? But with a patio project engulfing the house, grandma duties looming, and a husband who’s a tad distracted (see patio project), something […]
I’ve had an amazing few days! What have I won? Notably Dangerous Secrets won the 2016 RONE Award for Best Post-Medieval Historical Romance. InD’Tale Magazine presented the award at their InD’Scribe conference which leads me to other things I’ve won: new friends, new ideas, new appreciation for my craft, and some insights about my self. One […]
Who reads my books, really? I’d like some demographic data. What is the best way to reach people who might like them? Sometimes I feel like I’m announcing in an echo chamber, or just talking with the same small group of people. What was it actually like to be a woman in 1835? I can […]