Reading Challenge: What Makes a Book a Classic?
I promised the last blog of each month would feature our 2018 Reading Challenge. Since I was away last Wednesday, let’s pretend THIS is the last week of March. If you’ve been following our discussions on the challenge, you already know the basics. If you haven’t? You can find out more right here. Don’t forget…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Happy Easter!
Easter is the time to rejoice and be thankful for the gift of life, love and joy. Have a blessed day.
Read MoreWant To Make A Guess?
PS: Since I couldn’t discuss the reading challenge this week, we’ll do it next week with suggestions for the third category, a classic you’ve always wanted to read.
Read MoreSunday Inspiration
We’re celebrating our own inspirational event this weekend with family. Sunday Inspiration will return renewed and rested next week. Have a good week, too.
Read MoreWhat Did We Learn From Our Winter?
Today, Tuesday, is the first day of spring. Can you tell? No? I’m not surprised. As I write this, the northeast United States is preparing for yet another nor’easter–the fourth this month. Severe storms with the threat of tornadoes are predicted for the South. Coastal rain and higher-elevation snow will spread across the Pacific Northwest. Heavy rain…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: “Look up at the stars”
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet… Try to make sense of what you see and about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and can succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”…
Read MoreThe Pleasures and Pitfalls of Research
Can novelists know too much about their subject, as well as too little? Last week I shared the three stages of research that I go through as I write my novels. Stage one: Broad research to determine whether an idea is workable. Stage two: Collection of facts needed to anchor my story in reality. Stage three:…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Powerful Women
In honor of Women’s Month and International Women’s Day, I have not one but several inspirational quotes from powerful women about the beauty, wonder, and challenges of being a woman. “Extremists have shown what frightens them the most: a girl with a book.” -Malala Yousafzai “Well behaved women rarely make history.” -Eleanor Roosevelt “Think like…
Read MoreResearching A Novel: What Do You Need to Know and When?
Researching A Novel. Really? I mean, it’s fiction. Don’t we make stuff up? No matter how much we think we know, all novelists worth their salt do tons of research. This week a novelist who follows Southern Exposure asked me to blog about researching a novel. I’m always delighted to help if I can. I…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Record Breaker
I’m not a big basketball fan, but I love this story about a young Iowa Hawkeye player who could have broken the record for consecutive successful free throws but chose not to because the young man who held the record was killed in a car accident a few years earlier before he could continue his…
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