Gratitude
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Sunday Snippet, Thanksgiving Version
Are you finding it hard to be thankful this year? 2020 has been a royal b#*ch of year, hasn’t it? So many things to be unhappy about. So many things to whine about. So many things to be just plain mad about. I know. I feel you. I truly do. However, I’m going to focus on the stuff to be happy about, to rejoice about, to be glad for. Here, in no particular order, is my Thanksgiving 2020 Gratitude List. I hope you’ll share yours. Husband. That’s all, just Husband. I tell y’all constantly what a great guy he is, so no need to expound here. Son, DIL, and Grandboy,…
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Sunday Snippet–The Celebration Version
Yup, I’m celebrating. Well, as much as one can celebrate in these days of masks, lockdowns, and sanitizer. I finally wrote THE END on novel #10–the first book in my new series for Tule Publishing, and it is now in the hands of my editor. I’m a weird mix of relieved and terrified. It’s always so hard to send your babies off to be taken apart and read by your development editor. But Sinclair is always kind and open and ready to talk, so that makes it a bit easier to bear. I’m already in discovery on the next book and Max Lange has that come-hither vibe going in my…
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Sunday Snippet
I’m finally breathing… with about five thousand words or less left to write on my current WIP, I can see the end and it’s full of light! The other day I was telling Husband that as I’ve gotten closer to The End on this book, I think I’ve discovered that pandemic writing is much harder than I ever realized. So much of what I, as a writer, depend on to prime the creative well has been unavailable to me through all of the writing of this first book in the Langes of River’s Edge series. People-watching and eavesdropping in restaurants and airports, writing trips, get-togethers with friends and family, wandering…
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Sunday Snippet
It’s been a crazy week… I’ve actually written quite a bit, but I also worked on three other editing gigs and did two days of virtual school with Grandboy. I’m in the home stretch with my newest WIP and getting perilously close to my deadline, but the last scenes are coming harder for some reason. No idea why. Virtual school with Grandboy usually goes pretty well–he’s willing and that’s the bulk of the battle right there. But some days are better than others and this week, he wasn’t feeling it. We forget, as adults, that kids have “off” days, too. Days when their focus isn’t going to come around or…
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Sunday Snippet
Can you believe it’s Sunday again? Yeah, neither can I. This week passed so quickly as writing, editing gigs, and fall yard clean-up were on tap for me. My Sunday Snippet today is actually a recommendation–if you have access to the Hallmark channels, watch Jingle Bell Bride! If you don’t have access, read on…I can help! I was also soooo excited that my fellow Tule Author Scarlett Wilson’s holiday romance Jingle Bell Bride was going to kick off the new Hallmark Countdown to Christmas! However, I had no way to watch it since Husband and I opted out of signing up for a cable service when we moved into our…
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Sunday Snippet…
…is actually a book review today. A book about Paris!! I don’t do book reviews here very often, mostly because brat that I am, I try to keep this blog focused on my writing and my life. That said, I do love having guests on the blog and promoting other writers’ work! If one of us wins, we all win and that is particularly true of fiction writers. I loved, loved Elizabeth Thompson’s new book, Lost in Paris, which I nabbed an ARC of over at Net Galley because I just couldn’t wait for release day! Thompson had me at “Paris,” the rest was just a delightful bonus that I…
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Saturday Snippet
The new novel is coming along. In fact, I finally feel as though I know these characters, which is a lovely experience. They’re talking in my head more and more–that’s a great signal. It’s been a good writing week and I’m hoping that this getting up early every day to commit at least an hour to the WIP will get me to “The End” pretty quickly now. Ryker Lange and his brother Becker and Max don’t have the same cozy, intimate relationship that the Flaherty boys have. They were raised differently and I was having a hard time acknowledging that as I wrote. I wanted the Langes to be all…
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Saturday Snippet (Okay, Sunday…)
Yesterday was a bit more zoo-y than I expected as we got Son and DIL’s cottage closed up for the summer and his boat pulled and winterized for storage, so I didn’t get to my Saturday post. It was a fun day with Son, though, and I got to take a final ride for the season in his fishing boat, which was a treat. Hardly anyone was on the lake, but man the shad were firing like crazy. It was kind of a crappy year for fishing (no crappie pun intended), but there are years like that. Husband and I were remembering the second or third year we had our…
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Focused on Writing
I’m in a weird place with this new work-in-progress. I like the story, I like the characters, but somehow I’m having a problem getting them to move along. I have more notes about this story, this new series, than I did starting out the Four Irish Brothers Winery series, mostly because I’m coming off those stories with this series, so character lists, place descriptions, etc. are already created, I’m just adding to them. But I also have more word notes, more conversation notes, more scene notes than any book I’ve ever written. It’s almost as if I’m writing the book in my notes, but when I get to the computer,…
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Annnd…It’s Monday, Friends
Wowzers, I can’t believe it is already the middle of August. Grandboy starts school today, online, the weather is pure Midwest summer–sultry with the occasional t-storm, and I’m still in book promotion. Meant to Be, book 2 in the Four Irish Brothers Winery series is free for a few days, so if you haven’t read it yet, here’s your chance. But hurry, it won’t stay free for very long! Today, my focus will be writing the new series. My amazing publisher has been doing workshops that have been incredibly inspiring, and now Ryker and Kitt’s story is bouncing around in my head like a tennis ball. It’s coming together, they’re…