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Drumroll Please . . .
Thanks to all who participated in my Favorite Things giveaway by commenting here at Southern Exposure. I really loved reading what you had to say. You certainly cheered up anybody who took the time to read about the things that make you happy. Random.org selected five winners and those readers will receive an autographed novel…
Read MoreThe Wise Man Star
As my Christmas gift to you, I want to share a passage from Fugitive, my novel published in the 1990s, as I did last year. Tate, the heroine, has moved to a cabin on land in the Ozark mountains, left to her by a father she never knew. This is an entry from his journal. May your…
Read MoreChristmas Cookies, A Tradition of Sharing
Did you know that Christmas cookies trace their lineage to medieval holiday rituals and Christmas cakes? Christmas lebkuchen (gingerbread) was probably the first “cookie” prepared for the holiday, and by the 1500s Christmas cookies had caught on all over Europe. The Dutch brought them to the US in 1600, and nobody’s looked back since. This Christmas cookie…
Read MoreWhich Comes First, The Novel or the Title
While I’m out of town visiting family and waiting for the arrival of the new grandchild, I thought I’d share a blog I wrote for Fresh Fiction in June of 2009. A search tells me it never appeared here, so enjoy now. I’ll be back with new blogs next week. Which comes first, the novel…
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 MoreAre You Well Connected, or a Slave to Technology?
Our TiVo died. Not without fanfare, and certainly not without warning. For the past four months, in the most interesting part of any program, the picture was nearly guaranteed to break up, the progress of the story halted as we rooted for TiVo to heal itself and continue until we discovered who had killed whom. …
Read MoreWhere, Oh Where, Has My Little Book Gone? Where, Oh Where, Can It Be?
I remember the days before Facebook. Yes, I’m that old. I remember when I pondered questions of great importance and wished I had someone to turn to for answers. No email, no Facebook, no Twitter. Wish no more. Recently I received an email from an unhappy reader. She had a discount coupon for Fortunate Harbor,…
Read MoreOh Say, Can You See?
Fireworks over Asheville, North Carolina last night, courtesy of photographer Galen McGee of Peak Definition and Two Rings Studio. How absolutely glorious.
Read MoreHow Many Ways Can We Say Hello? Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Radio Show
I’ll confess, much about promoting a book is simply exhausting. Saying “no,” for instance, when I’m asked to speak–the exhausting part comes from deciding what I can manage each year and what’s just one thing too many. Book signings can be exhausting, too. Not the kind that should be, when a hundred readers are standing in front…
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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