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Sunday Snippet: The Discovery Edition
Several years ago, I attended an Indiana RWA event—Bob Mayer’s Write it Forward workshop. It was inspiring and Bob’s book, The Novel Writer’s Toolkit is one of my go-to references. He has lots of valuable things to say about writing and the process of writing. Another mentor is Lani Diane Rich, whose Chipperish Media’s How Story Works podcasts are an invaluable source of inspiration and education for any writer. From Lani, I learned about discovery—what begins my process when I write. All books begin with an idea, as Mayer says. That’s “the heart of your story.” For me, it’s mostly characters in my head banging around, begging for their stories…
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Guest Author Kelly Cain Has a New Release and a Giveaway!
UPDATE: Shari B. is the winner of the $25.00 Amazon Gift Card! Shari, Kelly will be in touch with you! I am so pleased to welcome fellow Tule author Kelly Cain to the blog today! Kelly is a native Northern Californian but has spent the last couple of decades in Texas, currently residing in the live-music capital of the world, Austin. Consequently, most of her books are set somewhere between those two locations. Kelly writes multicultural romance with determined women directing their own fates, and the swoon-worthy men who adore them. She loves reading most genres but please don’t ask her to pick just one. However, she can pick her…
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Sunday Snippet: The Moving Right Along Edition
And so we are. I’m finally out from under a rather large editing gig that was a particularly challenging one. I only have one project on my desk this week, although I am getting another at the end of the week, and so my plan is to write, write, write. I had the great news from my editor that Max’s book is on the way to the copy editor, along with warm congratulations that I’d nailed the story in revisions and she’s excited for the next one. Whew! That is always a marvelous message to receive. So the next one is underway and I’m learning the characters and their quirks…
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Sunday Snippet: The French Butter Edition
I love French butter. We discovered it in Paris, naturally enough, and it’s perfect butter. Creamy and delicious with just the right touch of salt. We ate it on croissants at the little café around the corner from our apartment and on crusty baguettes from the boulangerie next to the laverie (laundromat). It was sheer paradis sur terre (heaven on Earth). I’d never really appreciated butter of any kind before that trip to Paris because my mom bought margarine and that’s what I grew up on. My grandmother had butter at her house and I recall thinking it tasted…oily. And because the size of my butt has been an issue my…
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Author Audrey Wick Has a New Book Out!
I’m delighted to welcome author Audrey Wick to the blog today. Audrey is a full-time English professor at Blinn College and an author of women’s fiction/romance. Her writing has also appeared in college textbooks, and she is a guest blog columnist with Writer’s Digest. Wick believes the secret to happiness includes lifelong learning and good stories. But travel and coffee help. She has journeyed to over twenty countries—and sipped coffee at every one. See photos on her website and follow her on social media. Website | Twitter | Instagram | BookBub | Goodreads Hiya, Audrey, so happy you could be here! Hello, Nan! It’s a pleasure to be on your…
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Snippet Sunday: The Real Snippet Edition
It’s been a busy week. I’ve got a couple of editing gigs going and I’m trying to write. We’ve been up at the lake since Thursday and although I love this place, I confess I’m more easily distracted when we are here. We won’t be coming up again until June, which is fine–we avoid the holiday weekends. It just gets too people-y for us. Husband’s had a good weekend–we put the boat in the water and that always makes him happy. Tomorrow I get to meet Liz for a writing day and that always makes me happy. I’m working on book 3 of the Lange Brothers series and it’s coming…
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Guest Author Julia Justiss Is Doing a Giveaway!
I’m so excited to welcome fellow Tule Publishing author Julia Justiss to the blog today! Julia is an award-winning author, who has written more than thirty-five novels and novellas set in the English Regency period and the Texas Hill Country. A voracious reader who began jotting down plot ideas for Nancy Drew novels in her third-grade spiral, Julia has published poetry and worked as a business journalist. She and her husband live in East Texas, where she continues to craft the stories she loves. Check the links below to find her website, chat with her on social media, and follow her on Bookbub and Amazon to receive notices about her…
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Sunday Snippet: The Loving My Own Words Edition
When Liz and I were on retreat earlier this month, we spent a lot of time discussing our WIPs. At one point she read me something she’d just written and said, “I really love it. That’s so nice when you like your own stuff.” I had to agree. I have to confess, I am one of those writers who needs to do that—read what I wrote previously in order to get into writing mode. I sometimes wonder if that’s because I’m an editor in my heart (and in my day job), but I don’t think I’m the only writer who works this way. I’ve tried just picking up where I…
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New Release from H L Marsay!
Hi, y’all. I’m so pleased to share the news that fellow Tule author H L Marsay has a new book out! H L Marsay has always loved reading detective stories and promised herself that some day, she would write one, too. A Long Shadow is the first book in her Chief Inspector Shadow series. Fortunately, living in York, a city full of history and mystery, she is never short of inspiration. When she isn’t coming up with new ways to bump people off, she enjoys red wine, dark chocolate, and blue cheese – not necessarily together! On the rare occasions when it isn’t raining in North Yorkshire, she can be…
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Sunday Snippet: The Mother’s Day Edition
It’s Mother’s Day. About every seven years or so, my mom’s birthday, which is May 13, lands on Mother’s Day Sunday. Not this year and honestly, I’m glad. The bittersweet of that convergence of memory-inducing events is enough to put me into a fetal position in the corner. There are days even after 33 years–dear lord, Mom has been gone 33 years!–that I miss my mother so much I ache with it. Not because she and I were all that close when I became an adult because we weren’t really. What I miss is my mommy. The woman who read to me endlessly, even when she was exhausted from working…