It’s wedding season! I love hearing all the stories of how couples got together. It inspires me to write better because, really, there are a lot of overused tropes out there. I’ve overused them myself. Though I’m happily married, and I feel like my love story would make good fodder, do I really have what […]
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 […]
Where To Next?
I find myself fantasizing about locations lately—specifically getaways. See, this August marks my twentieth wedding anniversary. We haven’t gone anywhere without the kids for longer than a weekend, but this year we decided to plan a *real* vacation, just the two of us. And after being cooped up for over a year with hardly more […]
A Day in the Life (part 8)
When we left our intrepid couple last month, things were getting just a little bit flirty between them. In a slightly awkward kind of way, of course. If you want to refresh your memory on any of the previous installments, you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. and Part […]
A Day in the Life (part 7) & a #Giveaway
Welcome to the blog today! I’m glad you’re here! The end of this fun little more-than-a-short-story is finally in sight. I think I’ll have it wrapped up in another couple of months (two…or three…probably three). If you’d like to catch up on what’s already happened in the wonderful and slightly wacky world of Zephyra Prentice, […]
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 […]
5 Things Men Could Learn From Romance Novels
Once upon a time, my husband listened to a romance audiobook with me. I downloaded Meant to Be Mine by Becky Wade for a road trip, and he got sucked in. It was the cutest thing ever. He said stuff like… “Matthew McConaughey could play a good Ty.” When Ty rode his Harley to the […]
A Day in the Life (part 6)
Welcome to my fun little short story that got out of control and became slightly (and I use that term loosely) more than a short story! If you haven’t read the previous installments or need to refresh your memory, you can read the rest of the story here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part […]
A Day in the Life (part 5)
When I got started, this was going to be a five-part story. I got a little carried away, though. Now I’m hoping to wrap it up in…um…eight parts? Maybe. Don’t hold your breath. Ten, for sure. Probably. Just in case you missed the first few parts and want to catch up, you can find them […]
7 Romance Cliches I (Secretly) Love + #Giveaway
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching a lot more TV during this time of quarantine. I’ve also gone back to my Asian roots and gotten into C-dramas, partly to brush up on my Chinese and also for nostalgia’s sake (I used to watch them with my parents when I was young). One […]