The Places We Leave Behind
I’ve been lucky, although for a long time I didn’t notice. While I am clearly a small town/rooted for generations/never need to move kind of woman, I have only lived in one small town, where we had no family ties. We moved on after six years. I am married to a minister, and moving comes…
Read MoreWhich Comes First, The Novel or the Title
While I’m out of town visiting family and waiting for the arrival of the new grandchild, I thought I’d share a blog I wrote for Fresh Fiction in June of 2009. A search tells me it never appeared here, so enjoy now. I’ll be back with new blogs next week. Which comes first, the novel…
Read MoreDigging for Gold In My Own Backyard
Since I’m traveling today, I thought you might enjoy a blog I wrote last fall for Suzanne Beecher who runs “Dear Reader” book clubs online. Suzanne’s book clubs are a great way to have book excerpts sent directly to you each weekday, in a genre you choose. For the record, and a year later, I did NOT…
Read MoreThe More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same: Abe Lincoln and the Election of 1860
One of the joys of living in Northern Virginia is experiencing the past. So much American history was made right here, and no drive into the nation’s capital goes by without finding a building I’ve never noticed before, in which events that rocked the world took place. When the National Park Service recently offered a…
Read MoreMore Infrequently Asked Questions–From the sublime to the ridiculous
I had so much fun answering questions a few months ago that I decided to ask for more on my Facebook Page to go with some I’ve saved from emails. In the future, if you have a question that’s not answered on my website at my FAQ (under Bio at the top), please email me to…
Read MoreDeadline Delicacies: You Can Write and Eat Your Veggies, Too
October in Virginia is the last gasp for fresh vegetables at our local farmer’s market. Having just mailed off my latest book, I took the morning to visit and stock up for a week of roasted veggies. While the pickings were slimmer than they’d been a month before, I still returned home with armloads of…
Read MoreEyes Wide Open, and Pen (?) in Hand
** Be sure to read to the end for a chance to win an autographed novel. Yesterday, Monday, was celebration day. On Sunday I sent Sunset Bridge to my editor. These days that’s as “easy” as attaching the manuscript to an email and clicking “send.” Of course everything that went before? Not so easy. Months…
Read MoreYou Say You Want A Digital Revolution?
If you read my recent blog on writers and friendship, you know I spent last week at the Novelist’s Inc. workshop on St. Pete Beach, my old stomping grounds. It’s always a surprise when I go home to find not the huge changes we sometimes see, but a re-creation of the past. My neighborhood looks much the…
Read MoreWith A Little Help From My Friends
Earlier in the fall I asked my Facebook readers what topics they would like to see here at Southern Exposure. Brandi Jones asked about my relationship with other authors. She wondered if we critique or brainstorm together, help each other out of writer’s block or even lend ideas. She was surprised at the lack of…
Read MoreThey Don’t Call ‘Em “Dead”lines For Nothing
I spent yesterday searching for hidden objects. What time I didn’t spend with nose to ground–a skill I learned from the local beagle–I spent watching half the appliances in my house fall apart. Ah, some people look for signs of changing seasons, colored leaves gently drifting to the ground, that first tracing of frost on…
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