The Problems With New: How Adventurous Are You?
How adventurous are you? On a scale of one to ten now, and remember, no one will know what you’ve decided. Do you like challenges? Are you happiest when you’re doing something you’ve never done before? Do you get bored easily doing the same old, same old? Then think of yourself as a ten, just a…
Read MoreReviewing and Chewing: The Real Joys of Book Clubs
The moment I heard that the Ashford Court Readers Group in Strongsville, Ohio was not only going to discuss Happiness Key, they were going to make food appropriate to my novel to enjoy together, I wanted to jump on a plane and join them. This is my kind of book club. Food and books. Can…
Read MoreThe Write Way: One Idea and a Million Stories–Which One Will You Tell?
“Pssst. . . I have a great idea for a story, but I don’t have time to write it. I’ll tell you what it is and we can split the royalties.” You think I’m kidding? I’m not. Every novelist has heard this offer. Sometimes in the dentist’s chair, sometimes at a party, sometimes from a…
Read MoreScrapping Her Way To a New Career–Joanna Campbell Slan, Mystery Author
I love interviewing authors, but let’s face it, authors are some of my very favorite people. Several years ago I went to a terrific writer’s conference in West Virginia and made two good friends. Today you’ll get to meet one of them, Joanna Campbell Slan, who since that conference has gone on to publish a brand…
Read MoreMothers In Law and In Our Hearts
I’ll confess these days I wince when I hear mother-in-law jokes. I wince because I am a mother-in-law times three. I have three wonderful in-law kids, and our family is enriched three-fold by their addition. I’m hoping to be a completely different kind of punchline at the end of my life. As goals go, that’s…
Read MoreChristmas in Springtime: The Seasons of Grace Quilt and Other Gifts
More than a year ago, quilt and fabric designer Pat Sloan and I began a block of the month project based on a quilt mentioned in Sister’s Choice, the fifth book in my Shenandoah Album series. This month we’re pleased to say we have just posted the final pattern of the series, the layout(s), cutting, and…
Read MoreMail 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 More