Can I be honest here? I hate group projects. There. I said it. It’s the way I’ve felt all my life. In school, growing up, I dreaded when the teacher would tell us we had to do something with other students. Especially if those other students didn’t pull their weight. I just tend to work […]
Reader Help Needed!
Sometimes writing a book takes an author by surprise. Take my upcoming book, Fire and Ice, the first book in my new Northwest Ice Christian hockey romance series. There I was, all happily writing about a female sports reporter and a gentlemanly rancher’s son who plays in the NHL, when suddenly research took me to […]
A Matter of Heart
I once heard someone say Mother’s Day should come with a trigger warning. This same person had a hard time going to church on Mother’s Day Sunday, explaining that for her the day was fraught with conflicting, complicated emotions she’d rather not have shoved in her face. If you can relate, this post is for […]
Truth or Fiction?
An author is supposed to write what she knows, right? At least, that’s what I’ve always heard. But, have you ever wondered how much of what an author knows is put into her story? Is the whole story made up of what she knows? Surely not! Otherwise, we wouldn’t have all those fun research stories […]
Support Your Favorite Authors #Giveaway
You’ve heard of the starving artist. Well, I’ll let you in on a secret. Most authors are starving. If not starving, at least struggling. Very few authors make a living with their words. Especially Christian authors since secular books make up most of the market. For every consistent bestselling author dominating Christian sales, there are […]
Real Life in Fiction
People often ask me where I get the ideas for my books. Ideas come from lots of places. Songs. News events. Dreams. What ifs. The possibilities are endless. No matter what the story is or how I discovered the idea, there is always a bit of real life in every story. I’m going to share […]
Third Ring’s a Charm
If you like real life love stories, you’ve got to hear about the one that inspired my work-in-progress, Fiancé Finale. A friend of mine dated a guy, but when they broke up, he got engaged to someone else. On the night before his wedding to the other woman, my friend randomly prayed, “God if you […]
The Wedding Went Off Without a Hitch – NOT #Giveaway
Our son got married last month. The ceremony was gorgeous, the bride was breathtaking, the groom was cute as could be, it was a beautiful day, and the wedding went off without a hitch. NOT! One major oops threatened the festivities. One of the bridesmaids got her dates mixed up. She thought it was the […]
Thankful for You
I’ve just returned from a massive writing conference in Las Vegas, Nevada called 20Booksto50K. Nearly 2,000 writers converged to talk writing and marketing, but you know what the biggest topic of conversation was? YOU. This yearly conference is for writers in all genres, but on the eve of the first day, about a dozen authors […]
That’s Going in a Book #Giveaway
After being in the house all week, editing a book, I told my husband I wanted to do something fun. Fun for us is go to out for lunch, then hit a few flea markets, and finish up with a grocery run. So we headed to our favorite plate lunch restaurant about forty minutes from […]