Happy New Year, friends! Welcome to 2026 – with an exciting, blank slate in front of us! Here are my writing goals this year: Write and Publish: Flames of Suspicion (February, I hope) Flames of Hope (April) Flames of Justice (June) Those will be books 5-7 in the Red Blood & Bluegrass series. Threads of Deception (maybe …
Category: Writing Life
Talk About Frustrating!
September 1st marked my “I’m back to being a full-time writer” phase of life. What made it fun is that I had two major conferences – American Christian Fiction Writers and Novelists, Inc., almost immediately. In fact, this week has been my first week home for the entire week since it all began! As you …
Refreshed, Reset, and Fri-YAY
Happy Fri-YAY! I’m fresh back from my annual spring writer’s retreat. I joined Susan May Warren, Lacy Williams, Misty Beller, Robin Patchen, and Tracy Higley for four-and-a-half wonderful days of talking, praying, crying, laughing, more laughing, plotting books, and talking strategy. We went over things that worked last year (obviously, I didn’t get to take …
Pinkalicious, Head Injuries, Romance Writers & Teen Drivers
This week has gone by SO FAST. I cannot believe that a week ago, I was preparing breakfast for the crew who came to my daughter Kaylee’s Sweet 16 party.
Mailing Tips
I sell a lot of autographed books through the mail — especially over the Christmas holiday. When I first started selling them, I tried to figure the best way to do it, the best way that would keep me from having to run to the post office every-other day.
Stylin’ White Board
So, I took a roll of wrapping paper, turned it so that the white bottom was out, wrapped the inside of the picture frame, then put it all back together and wah-lah! A moderately non-tacky white board!
Writing in Layers
I have found over the years that I tend to write in layers. I have all of these action scenes in my head that drive the story, and I have to get to each one of them. So, I write action — “She walks into the room, does this action thing that drives the story, …
At the Library!
I’d heard that it was difficult to get books at the library. There are steps you take – something with newspaper stories, etc., before they’d consider you. I’ve been so busy learning everything else about the writing/publishing world that I just tabled the whole library thing to concentrate on another time. Then, a couple of …
Saturday Mornings
Saturday mornings are my quiet mornings. Gregg and Kaylee typically sleep in – they’re the sleepers of the family. The boys don’t really sleep in (5:30 this morning), but once they’re up and I feed them (the only morning of the week I give them cold cereal), I put in a full length feature film …
Re-Writes
It wasn’t so hard to re-do the first half of the book. The mystery and intrigue plot just needed a little bit of refining. I did need to incorporate the things I’ve learned about police procedure and such over the last fifteen years. But, all in all, tt wasn’t too bad. The relationships needed a little bit of help, but it was okay. I breezed through seventeen chapters in two days (about 8 hours) of writing.
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