The Writing Process
Digging 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 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 MoreSniffing Out A Story, One Piece of Evidence At A Time
I’m still not quite sure how this happened. One moment I volunteered to dog-sit for the pathetic puppy that my son and daughter-in-law had rescued from the path of a bush hog and nursed back to health. The next I was on the telephone with my husband, who was out of town at a conference. …
Read MoreThe Book That Will Not End–When One Novel Becomes A Series
Two weeks ago I asked my Facebook “fans” to suggest topics they’d like me to blog about here. Then I sweetened the pot by doing a giveaway in conjunction. Three commenters were chosen at random and received autographed copies of my novels. See what you miss if you’re not hanging out with us on the page? …
Read MoreThat Final Piece of the Puzzle–When Ideas Fall Into Place
We had the privilege of hosting a colleague and friend of my husband for dinner this week, along with his delightful wife and daughter. Although our cottage is chock full of toys for younger children– toys our own children played with that are now happily at home here for grandchildren and visitors–we did not have…
Read MoreLaying the Groundwork and Planting the Seeds
Back in late June I blogged about all the wonderful things I did that month instead of writing. This was my first stint at our funky old cottage in Chautauqua, New York, and between plumbers and carpenters, cleaning and weeding out, and yes, meeting and enjoying the company of neighbors, I ended up with far…
Read MoreRacing To Conclusion: The Fine Art of Finishing A Novel
If you hang out with me on my Facebook reader page, then you know that yesterday I was in New York filming a promotional video with the delightful authorKatie Fforde, who writes romantic comedies and lives in–gasp–the Cotswolds of England. In my next life I plan to live in the Cotswolds, too. I’ve already put in…
Read MoreWhat A Difference A Letter Makes: Happy Is A Five Letter Word
I’ll confess profanity rarely bothers me. Maybe my tolerance comes from my father, who was an army staff sergeant during World War II and didn’t always remember to temper his speech later after I made my appearance. Or maybe I’m less bothered because on the radical streets of Berkeley, California, where my husband did his…
Read MoreGreat Expectations–The Chapters That Did NOT Get Written
I had great expectations for my time here, but the reality was even better. Sometimes it’s important to let go of expectations, to see what transpires without them. Some of life’s finest gifts arrive that way. My gift this past month was making new friends and learning to appreciate this remarkable community in a whole new way. I just bet, in the long run, Tracy, Wanda, Janya and Alice will all be better off for it when I settle in, once again, to tell their story.
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