I’m in the process of worldbuilding for my next contemporary Christian romance series. As I worked on fleshing out the small Norwegian town where my characters live, work, and fall in love, I began thinking about their church. It will probably be an important part of the story since it has a big role in […]
Vacation Inspiration #Giveaway
Since I started writing, whenever we go on vacation, a book begins to percolate. I often plan our trips around a jaunt I need to make for a book I’m writing. Back when I began my rodeo series, we visited the Fort Worth Stockyards and Aubrey, Texas. Both featured prominently in the series. Since we […]
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 […]
Daddies are Special #Giveaway
In 2007, I received word that I’d finaled in the Touched By Love writing contest and the winners would be announced at the Faith, Hope, & Love Conference in Dallas in July. I’d already paid and planned to attend the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in September, also in Dallas that year. My husband […]
Character Hometowns: Jasper Alabama #giveaway
Characters all need a hometown plus a life history, and it can become challenging to give them each a unique place to come from. An author needs to have some basic knowledge of that setting, so I mostly write about places I know. In Tackling the Fields, I went back to my mother’s roots to […]
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 […]
Playing it (Not So) Cool & #Giveaway
Hello, new friends! To say I am excited to share my very first post as an Inspy Romance author is a huge understatement. In fact, when I received the invitation to join the incredible community of IR bloggers, I most definitely did not play it cool. I happened to be visiting my parents for my […]
When Characters Travel: Central America #giveaway
When Characters Travel: Central America When I started writing Leaving Oxford, a character in the story wanted to start a medical clinic in Honduras. Then, in Going Up South, a group of characters travel there for a mission trip. Tackling the Fields begins immediately afterward. I interviewed so many people about their trips to the […]
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 […]
The Responsibility of Writing Christian Romance
I often think of what a privilege it is to be able to create stories for a living. The word fiction, according to Merriam Webster, means “something invented by the imagination”. So, as an author, I literally make money by making stuff up. Sounds cool, right? LOL. It is cool! Writing is a huge blessing […]