The Writing Process 2015: What Happens After “The End?”
My deadline was November 1. This was a carved-in-stone, don’t-you-dare-be-late, the-heavens-will-collapse deadline. I turned in When We Were Sisters exactly on time. It’s now November 17th and the book seems to be happily napping, all curled up and dreaming about its June debut, somewhere between “written” and “edited.”Am I surprised? Unhappy? Perplexed? Nope. I’m a writer with…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Making Love Last
As you may have figured out from reading my books, I’m very interested in relationships, especially relationships that need to be healed. My interest probably comes from having been a family counselor in my past life and being married for many years. Or perhaps I was a family counselor and am long-married because I am interested in…
Read MoreWelcome to the World Declan!
I expected to be back in Florida early this week after visiting my Ohio family, signing at the Buckeye Bookfair and savoring the birth of our newest grandson. The sweater set above was my summer project while I waited for the baby to arrive and I couldn’t wait to give it to his mom and…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: It’s a Wonderful World
https://youtu.be/ML1GiXqTjuM I guarantee that this video will make your day. Thanks to my husband for today’s post while I’m away enjoying this wonderful world. I receive an inspirational quote every day from Values.com, and I’ve passed some of my favorites on to you. They also make commercials, as well as billboards to pass their hopeful…
Read MoreEmilie’s Krewe of Review
If you didn’t open my October newsletter, or you haven’t yet subscribed, let me tell you about Emilie’s Krewe of Review. At the Novelist’s Inc. conference last month I learned so many exciting ideas. One came from a workshop about review teams. “Street” teams have been around for years. A street team is a group of…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Day of the Dead
My husband was in Guatemala several years ago when the Day of the Dead was being celebrated, and he says it was one of the most impressive sights he had ever seen. This video is very similar to what he saw, people picnicking and flying kites in cemeteries and displaying colorful giant kites. I wrote about this tradition…
Read MoreQuestion and Answer: Facebook Readers to the Rescue
I have to smile. I just looked up the blogs listed here under I Really Want to Know. And yes, after difficult deadlines, apparently question and answer seems positively enlightened. I came up with the same solution in 2013, proving once again that we are, if nothing else, creatures of habit.My Facebook Readers came to the rescue this time,…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Becoming Kinder
Are you a kind person? Would you like to be kinder? Becoming kinder is something all of us — or almost all of us — strive for. Why? Because we want to be good people mostly. But to be honest there’s a selfish reason as well: we know that the kinder we are the happier…
Read MoreThe Writing Process 2015: Saying Goodbye to Characters
Are you a fan of classic movies? Remember all the times a novelist–usually madly typing on a vintage typewriter–finished his book with a flourish, and as the camera moved over his shoulder, typed “The End.” He (it’s usually a he) ripped the paper out of his machine, stuffed it, along with a huge stack of similar pages, into a manila envelope…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Hope in spite of…
https://youtu.be/-MH2HNA4de4 This short video moved me and I think it will move you, too. I find it perplexing that people who have so much going for them are often starved for hope –celebrities come to mind who seem to have everything and yet become addicted or suicidal. Others have so little and yet live with and…
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