My youngest daughter is 11, and she hates conflict. I don’t mean only conflict in real life. I mean conflict in stories. If she’s watching a movie or TV show and the characters start to fight or there’s a big battle against the bad guys, she’ll either look away, skip the scene, or turn it […]
Grateful (& not just for the #giveaway)
I know it’s still a few weeks away, but this is the month for Thanksgiving. This is a month when (if we haven’t already been doing so), we start to focus on gratitude and appreciation for God and hopefully for others. Doing this in November helps us – in my opinion – helps us to […]
Living Gratefully
Hello, lovely readers! As the leaves turn golden and the air grows crisp, October brings that cozy, sweater-weather feeling. You know, the kind that makes you want to curl up with a good book and a cup of coffee? As the days grow shorter and the leaves put on their annual color show, I find myself […]
How sweet it is… (#NationalSweetestDay)
Did you know that the third Saturday of October is National Sweetest Day? Apparently there’s a special day set aside for candies and sweets. I shouldn’t be surprised since candy is big business. Why do people like sweet things or read sweet books that make them smile a little more? When real life is hard […]
The Prodigals
Last month, I posted The Prodigal Daughter as though written by my character, Meg Carmichael, and I asked if any of you had read other “prodigal” retellings. I didn’t get any bites, and I thought… I’m sure there must be stories with that theme out there. I know I’ve written some and read more! So […]
It’s (I’m) a Work in Progress
If you could eavesdrop on a conversation between a group of writers, you might hear them say things like, “How’s the new WIP coming along?” “My WIP refuses to cooperate.” “I’m almost done with my WIP.” And you might think they’ve lost their marbles (totally possible) or that they have their own language (also true). […]
The Storms of Life
The above photo is one I took last week after a microburst hit our neighborhood. We weren’t at home when it happened. When we drove onto our street, we first noticed a downed tree in our neighbor’s yard. We found a large flower pot and the lid to someone’s garbage can in our front yard. […]
Which Kind of Reader is Better: The Tortoise or The Hare?
We all know the story of the The Tortoise and the Hare. They race, and the tortoise wins because he keeps going, slow and steady. But let’s be honest. Often, it’s not the tortoises in life that we value. In a culture that celebrates productivity and quantity and speed, I find it easy to envy […]
Hope for Happily Ever After
I’m on the home stretch of writing Fiancé Finale, the third book in my Love Unscripted series. This is the fun part because I get to wrap things up happily-ever-after. It’s getting to the happily-ever-after that’s hard. You probably already know this from experience, but I’ll sum it up from a writer’s perspective. Growth is […]
When Life Puts Clouds in Your Way
A few weeks ago, we were hit with one of those series of events where it felt like everything you’d worked for came to a crashing halt. We were hit on every front from health issues to financial fallout. All I wanted to do was fix it. I spent hours trying to figure out a […]