Musings
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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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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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Saturday Snippet
…is just musing today because it’s my birthday and I’m feeling, well, musie. For so many years, I worried–I mean I seriously feared–that I would die at age 60 like my mother. I’m like her in a lot of ways, but thankfully not that one, because today I’m turning 67. I never imagined that I’d get to 60, let alone pass it with another seven years, so each year is a precious gift. Even in the year 2020, which has been a truly crap year on so many levels. I’m alive, I’m strong, I’m healthy, my family is healthy, I have a safe warm house, and lots of wonderful friends.…
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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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Celebrating Mom’s Way
I was just in the kitchen putting baked beans together and it occurred to me how much of my Mom’s way of doing things I’ve brought to my own adulthood. Like, for instance, baked beans. Mother was always horrified at the idea of dumping a can of baked beans into a pot and warming it up right from the can. Instead, she drained the beans, put them in a casserole dish, added barbecue sauce, mustard, a chopped onion, and brown sugar. Then she placed two strips of bacon across the top in an X and put them in the oven. She baked them until they were dry enough that when…
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The Famous Sister
I love that I’m currently ranked #33 among all of Amazon’s Best-Selling Contemporary Romance Authors–what a wonderful feeling that is! My sister, PJ, teasingly refers to me as “my famous sister,” which I find delightful and hilarious because although I treasure her pride in my writing, I’m hardly famous. I’m simply a midlist romance author, although I do have a small cadre of loyal readers to whom I owe any success I can lay claim to. My publisher, Tule Publishing, has added to that group and I’m ever always grateful to the team there who work so hard on my behalf. But I have to tell you honestly, as I…
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Hunkering Down…Really?
Right off, this is not news for me–I’m a freelance editor. Lock-down has basically been my life since 1996. I work from home, I write at home, I’m pretty much at home about 70% of the time. However, the whole idea that I have to stay at home is new to me and frankly, it’s kinda bugging me. I keep thinking of reasons I need to get in the car and go somewhere. If this self-quarantine thing wasn’t happening, I’d be merrily working away, needing nothing. Go figure. Here’s the thing, though; this isn’t really terrifying me. We needed a reset in this country, maybe this is the start of…