As I write this, I am sitting at the desk my granddaughters have set up for me in the dining room of their home. They were excited to show me this surprise. They know that when Grandma comes to visit, she usually spends some time on her computer doing writer things. Here’s my new desk […]
Thank You, Dear Readers by Deb Kastner with #Giveaway
One of the things I’ve struggled with during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis is the feeling of going stir crazy, of feeling all alone. I know you may be wondering how that could be, since I already worked at home even before all this craziness began. You know when you were a kid and your parents […]
A Season of Change
It feels like I’ve been in a season of change for the past year. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of change most of the time, so I tend to resist it, until I finally accept it and then embrace it. This past year has been a huge time of change […]
What Can I Do To Make It Better?
I love to cook and I don’t mind following a recipe, but I’m always asking myself ‘what can I do to make it better?’ I had planned to use ground turkey for last night’s supper. I usually make turkey burgers with it but wanted to stretch out and try something new. As a side note, […]
Book Themes and Therapy
Welcome to the Inspy Romance Back to School Book Bash season! I hope you’re as excited as we are. If you missed the post, you can visit it HERE. One of the highlights for me this year are listening to podcasts. This is a bit overwhelming to me, so right now I’ve tried ministries/pastors I […]
Why I Write Christian Romances with a Hardback Series Giveaway
My well was dry this week. I finished writing Alexandra’s Appeal, and incredibly emotional, full-length novel on a Friday. Instead of taking my standard 2-weeks off to recharge my creative juices, I immediately started writing a Christmas novella, The Seven Year Glitch, because it’s due on September 1st. It’s been very hard to write that […]
The Elephant in the Room & a #Giveaway
When I was a kid, we used to visit John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks, Nevada. I don’t gamble, and I didn’t grow up with gamblers, but I did grow up right next door to Reno, Nevada and its plethora of casinos. We used to meet my grandparents for dinner at one of the Nugget’s many […]
Writing What You Know: Character Edition
Research is a fundamental part of writing. There is an old saying that goes, “Write what you know.” While writing only what I know would give me a book or three, that would be the end of my career. You can only get so much entertainment out of one person’s experiences and then the well […]
Things Authors have to Google (and other ways we research)
Google is a writer’s best friend – or at least it seems that way sometimes! I’ve researched everything from bread baking techniques (for Danielle in Summer to Remember) to how to embezzle money from a doctor’s office (Spring Fever). While we often pull from experience from former jobs, relationships, or current hobbies, sometimes we get […]
How Being an Empath Impacts My Writing (and everything else)
It’s always been hard to explain the difference between sympathy and empathy. It’s even harder to describe being an empath versus feeling empathy, but the best I’ve been able to come up with is this: empaths are highly absorbent emotional sponges in human form. Unlike sympathy, which is essentially identifying someone’s emotional state and reacting […]