I know all about love and moments that make your heart skip a beat. I’m familiar with the sights, sounds, and smells of Western North Carolina in every season. I can describe a variety of weather, characteristics, and emotions. So, when I’m writing a romance set in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the summer, I […]
Getting It All Done
It’s late on a Friday night, and I am reminded that I must have my blog post ready by Sunday afternoon. I will be very busy this weekend, so it is butt in chair and fingers on the keyboard in order to get that done. This week has been filled with tennis, Orange Theory Fitness, […]
Making Faces
Have you ever noticed when a character makes a certain facial expression … well … a LOT? I think I notice things like that more because I catch myself doing it when I write. My characters have this tendency to lift one eyebrow higher than the other. Why? Yeah. I have a tendency to do […]
Real-life Location & #giveaway
I have a confession. Sometimes, when I write, I use a setting I haven’t visited yet. Can you tell? Don’t get me wrong. I do loads of research. I troll internet photos, read travel blogs, visit the website of the location. But it’s not the same as actually being there yourself, you know? Well, when […]
The Writer and the Rider
When my husband first asked if I was okay with him buying a Harley, I said, “Honey, I’m a romance writer.” Meaning, “Yes.” First of all, he’d supported my dreams of writing, so I wanted to support his dream of riding. Secondly, I thought riding a motorcycle would be like I’d written it in my […]
Research and Writing (plus a sneak peek)
Some writers love to research. I have a few author friends whose favorite part of writing is heading to the library and returning with a stack of informational texts or opening a dozen internet browser tabs and clicking through page after page. I am not one of these people. I’m sure it goes along with […]
Dressing My Characters
If I didn’t have the Internet, I don’t think I could write. I could research at a library, I know. I can work a card-catalog like no one, and digging through books and discovering facts brings me great joy. But, there’s one thing that having the Internet does for me that wouldn’t be as effective […]
My 30th Book Birthday!
There is a saying that goes, “Write what you know.” As much as that’s helpful, that would be a very short-lived career. I am an army wife, the ex-wife of a drug addict, a cook, a mother, a special needs mother, and…that’s what I know. All of my characters who are anything but those things, […]
Bon Voyage for Research!
Happy New Year! I know it’s actually January 15th, but the last time I was here, I was talking about Christmas love stories, so this is my first chance to welcome 2019 in with you! I love the beginning of the year. I am a calendar junkie, and one thing I do at the beginning […]
The personal side of research
We have about a dozen horses on our farm that my husband has gathered over the years. Most of them have come here as colts that he bought. A few of them were born on our farm. The one thing they have in common is that my husband, with the help of a farrier a neighbour […]