The Writing Process
Starting a Novel, the Truth
Starting a novel. Here’s my dream. Dream with me a moment, okay? I’m sitting against a massive oak in a field of wildflowers, skirt spread around me, birds chirping, brook running merrily just a few feet away. In my lap I have a notebook and a fountain pen. The notebook cover is a vintage quilt…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Fifty Shades of Beige
I live in a small housing community in Florida, ungated and maintenance free–which means someone else mows my lawn and trims my hedges. Whatever I choose for my yard must be easy to maintain. Our community is situated beside a state park so we must also abide by their rules when it comes to invasive plants. Within those limits…
Read MoreThe Write Way: An Author’s Control Over Content and Production
Years ago, when I started my writing career, I signed contracts for a number of romance novels. None of those early contracts discussed e-books because e-books were in the future. When asked my publisher graciously agreed I had the right to publish these books as e-books myself, and so far I’ve re-edited, revised and put…
Read MoreThe Write Way: How Much Control Does an Author Have Over Covers?
Recently I received several emails in response to my last newsletter complaining that my newly reissued romance, The Unmasking, was only available as an e-book and wasn’t in paper–unless a reader can find the original paperback, which is almost a collector’s item. While I sympathize, and wish I could magically produce books in all formats,…
Read MoreAnd In Conclusion: Finishing a Novel
I’m writing the final pages of No River Too Wide. If my outline is correct (and it often isn’t at this stage) I have a dozen or so scenes to work into this final portion of the book to tie up my multiple plot lines. Multiple-Plot-Lines-R-Us, I’m afraid. Always and forever, amen. In a conversation…
Read MoreWhat Do Decorating a House and Writing a Book Have in Common?
I’m going to make a confession. I’m addicted to decorating and renovation blogs. My favorite three letters are DYI. Do I have time for DYI? Of course not. Proof: I am still hand quilting the first quilt top I ever made back in, oh, 1990, give or take a year. Were I to try my hand…
Read MoreW. Somerset Maugham vs. Elmore Leonard. Are There Rules for Writing?
Every writer I know loves to quote the following by W. Somerset Maugham, (1874-1965) author of The Razor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage: “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.” More recently ten tricks for good writing by the late Elmore Leonard, renowned writer of westerns and…
Read MoreThose Difficult Chapters in Life and in Novels
I am on a deadline. So what else is new? In college when I had an “end” in sight, a paper, a test, a project, I had a bad habit of waiting until the last minute, a habit I unlearned by my senior year. When I began to write I had learned my lesson. I worked…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Finding Ideas for your Novel
I’m sitting at my desk in my new writing home. I wish I could tell you it’s the perfect study, soundproof, light-filled, roomy enough for all my books and research material but not the least bit barny. Actually this room is light-filled, because I’m working in the glassed-in porch of our old, old cottage in…
Read MoreSomewhere Between Luck and Trust: Cristy Haviland
On Thursday I introduced you to Georgia Ferguson, one of two major characters in Somewhere Between Luck and Trust. Georgia was familiar because she was a minor character in One Mountain Away, the previous book. Now, enter Cristy Haviland, a fresh face in the series and a young woman fresh out of prison whose own…
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