The other day I went to a book festival event near my hometown. This secular event had a number of high profile Australian authors speak, include Tom Kenneally (author of Schindler’s Ark which became the film Schindler’s List) and Candice Fox, who co-writes with James Patterson and has had TV shows made of her books. […]
New Year Goals #Giveaway
Happy New Year’s Eve. It’s an especially special day at our house since it’s our son’s birthday. He’s twenty. How did that happen? Wasn’t it just yesterday that after 2 1/2 months of bed rest, the doctor sent me to the hospital to be induced. Three hours of pain later, a nurse said, “Maybe you’ll […]
Inspy Christmas Reads #Giveaway
In case you didn’t find enough books on black Friday, here’s a round-up of Christmas reads by Inspy Romance authors. Make your list and check it twice. It’s a doozy that should get you through New Years :) Seaside Christmas: A Sydney Sweethearts Novella Narelle Atkins Chelsea Somers is the girl he never called back. […]
Friday Facts (+ #Giveaway!)
Since we had some good responses to my previous Friday posts (Friday Five and Friday Favorites), I thought we’d have some fun today with a “Friday Facts” post. Here are 5 facts that you may or may not know about one of our favorite topics—books. There are around 130 million books published. The world’s best […]
Hero or Zero?
The title is a bit of a misnomer. I hope you’ll forgive me for that. What is a hero, anyway? Since I write romance novels, you would think this question is easy to answer. I suppose it could be broken down and analyzed by different genres, but, again, I write romance. There are even specific […]
What About Setting? #Giveaway
I write in layers. That means, my first draft is mainly dialogue, character thought, and emotion. Once I complete the book, I go back in and add setting, description, movement, body language, and timeline. I used to weave my setting and timeline in as I wrote the first draft. Until my editor asked if I […]
20 Ways to Achieve a Healthy Book/Life Balance
Perhaps you’ve been there. The children are hungry for dinner. The laundry heaps on the bedroom floor are waiting for a fold. Your friends’ texts remain unopened. But you only have six chapters left in that book you’ve been anticipating for months. If that describes you, then you have an unhealthy book/life balance. If you […]
A New Leaf #Giveaway
So I got a new desk. I didn’t mean to. It was supposed to be for my husband. I do most of my furniture shopping on Facebook Marketplace and flea markets. I’d found a white desk just like it a few months ago, but it was three hours away. So when I found this one […]
Series Boxed Sets: Yea or Nay? + giveaway
In recent years we’ve seen a huge uptick in the sales of boxed sets for books, especially eBooks. I’ve been part of half a dozen MABS—that’s multi-author box sets—over the last few years myself, and as a reader I love those because I can get to sample new-to-me names. But today, I’m talking about single […]
Revisiting Characters
A Texas Bond, book three in my Texas Hill Country series, officially released last week. It was inspired partly by my husband and I dabbling in flea marketing after shopping them for years. The picture I included is the booth we had full of items we created or repurposed. It was fun fitting our […]