Mail Bonding: Letters from My Readers
Dear Ms. Richards, Recently I found your Shenandoah Album books and read them all. Sure I had found an author I could admire and trust, I went back and read some of your other novels. I found several words that I don’t even want to “think.” I am now ashamed to be seen with your novels. I…
Read MoreCreativity by Ingredients: Recipes and Plots, Cooking and Writing
Those of you who have “fanned” my page on Facebook know I like to cook. In fact you’ve probably figured out that I like to cook from the Internet. And it’s true. The Yahoo homepage I stare at every morning, is a one of a kind original, with feeds and “widgets” chosen by me. My page…
Read MoreThere Be Pirates: Illegal Downloads and Why They Affect You
Free books are a treat we all enjoy. Books given as gifts. Books won in contests, like the ones I frequently offer here and on my website. Books loaned to us by good friends. Even books checked out at the library, although, of course, your taxes support that fabulous institution, so technically those books aren’t…
Read MoreThe Rift That Will Not Mend–When Adoptions Fail
This week the news networks were filled with stories of the “mother” who sent her adopted son back to Russia, unaccompanied by anybody except flight attendants and the child’s own distress and sense of failure. Her action was wrong, plain and simple. No child deserves that treatment. No flight attendant deserves or should accept that kind of responsibility. And…
Read MoreTrigger Unhappy–Avoiding Anger and Embracing Patience
There I was on the telephone with my county treasurer’s office, holding in my hand the threatening letter they’d sent because my annual application for a business license had been two days late, and, according to their records, my 10% fine had not yet been paid. I had paid it, of course, immediately after receiving the…
Read MoreDon’t Blink, It’s Spring And This Is The Moment To Say Ahh. . .
This morning we finally found time to visit the rebirth of cherry blossoms on the tidal basin near the Jefferson Memorial. My husband and I took care of all the morning’s business, planning as we cleared kitchen counters and put away the homemade muesli and sourdough bread. We debated taking the dog. We debated taking…
Read MoreTell No Lies: A Candid Interview with Julie Compton, Author of Rescuing Olivia
One of the real joys of my job is meeting other writers. Several years ago I had the opportunity to speak at a book festival in St. Louis, and Julie Compton, was on the same panel to promote Tell No Lies, her first novel. I liked her immediately. Beautiful, intelligent, witty and warm. Really, all in…
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