• Sunday Snippet: The Writing from Other People’s Experiences Edition

    I’m writing book 3 in the Walkers of River’s Edge series–it’s Cam Walker’s story. He’s fallen in love with the new girl in town–a lovely young artist who also happens to be a widow. As a fiction writer, sometimes, my own life directs my storytelling, but honestly, most all of what I write comes from other people’s experiences, from absorbing narrative through films, books, music, and TV, and from listening. Okay, maybe eavesdropping in restaurants and airports and in groups of people, and from conversations I’ve been a part of and some that I’ve only been an observer in.  That’s all part of the discovery process–what happens before you start…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Eeek, I Need a Break Edition and a Question

    I’ve been working and writing pretty much nonstop for… well, for the last five years for sure and probably longer and I need a break. That’s not a whine…well, okay, maybe a little bit of a whine, but the fact is, I need to get away. Thankfully, I am getting away in about about a week! YAY! Liz and I are going on retreat for four days and I can’t wait. Retreat doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing. As a matter of fact our retreats are all about writing, but it does mean I’ll set my editing gigs aside for four days and focus entirely on the current WIP. Plus I…

  • Sunday Snippet: The End of Year Edition

    2024 looms–and that is indeed the word I mean to use–looms. Not just personally, but also in regard to the whole world. We are living in chaotic and scary times, and I keep thinking what can I do? The only answer I can come up with as 2023 closes is to hang on. Keep doing what I’m doing–write, work, spend time with my family, spread love, pay attention to what’s happening in the world…vote. This may be the election year that I put in time as a volunteer for a candidate. My stomach roils at the thought of what’s happening in Washington (not much thanks to a do-nothing off-the rails…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Holiday Reprise Edition

    Mes, Amies, it’s been a long week and I didn’t get to writing my snippet this week, so you get a repeat. It’s one of my personal favorites, so I hope you enjoy… Despite struggling financially, my mom always made the holidays a treat for me and my sibs. We always had a Christmas tree, the house was always filled with the scent of cookies baking and there was always, always music. Oh, the music of it all! Mom would go to the Firestone store or to the Marathon gas station every year and pick up their annual Christmas album to play on our old console stereo. Remember when a…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Holy Cats, It’s December Edition

    Yup…it’s December and that happened before I even realized Thanksgiving week was over. Seems as if I’m gobsmacked every single year to realize Christmas is just over three weeks away at the beginning of December. Is it just me? I didn’t used to be this way. Long ago, BAN (Before Author Nan), I was pretty well through my Christmas shopping, the house would be decorated, I’d have started my Christmas baking by now. This year, I’m just grateful to have finished my latest WIP by the deadline (which, okay, I confess, was on an extension). Now, I’m taking a writing breath, but still doing Christmas in River’s Edge promotion for…

  • Sunday Snippet: The I Love Autumn Edition

    Autumn is my favorite time of the year, even though I’m often restless and sad in the fall. It’s an ending in so many ways, and yet there is that feeling of joyful beginning that comes with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season. We’re closing up the cottage this weekend, packing perishable items that can’t stay over the winter, storing linens, and winterizing. The saddest thing is leaving our lake friends. It’s odd, but in the summer, the lake often feels like our real life, and when we come home, it seems as if we are just marking time until we can go back there. I’m not sure…

  • Thursday: The Happy Thanksgiving Edition

    That’s all, actually. Happy Thanksgiving, mes amis. I am grateful for so many things in my life, but close to the top is that I get to share my thoughts, my joys, my sorrows, my life with all of you. Have a good day today–rest, be peaceful, spend time in fellowship with those you love, drink some good wine, and taste everything! With gratitude,

  • Sunday Snippet: The Moments of Blessing Edition

    Thanksgiving week is a time for gratitude. To look back on the year and count my blessings because oh, how I am blessed. This past year has been such a busy one. Between writing and book releases and editing gigs and promotion, I’ve barely had time to simply breathe. But even amidst all that scurrying and time spent at my computer, writing and working, I’ve had moments. Too many to list them all here and too many people in my life to mention them all here, although they are always in my heart, but here a few moments from this year. Moments with Husband: Dancing in a vineyard in Oregon…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Just 15K More Edition (& There’s a Snippet!)

    That’s 15K more words until Kara and Joey’s story is done and I can do the necessary stuff to get it ready to go to my editor. I’ve been a writing machine the past week, getting up every morning to get at least a thousand words in with a great group of sprinters led by Bryn Donovan, writer, editor, and all around, great person. I’m at the dark moment–which in my books is rarely dark-dark, mostly just a little on the gray side, and frequently, it’s not a conflict between the two MCs, as much as it is an issue for one of them that he/she must solve in order…

  • Sunday Snippet: The It’s All About the Promo Edition

    Today, it is, mes amis. It’s actually Saturday late afternoon. I’ve met a friend for breakfast, edited almost 80 combined pages on two different projects today, made some notes about my own WIP on my lunch break, gotten rained on during my quick walk around the ‘hood, and frankly, my brain is fried. Grandboy is due here any moment and I need to go back and change the sheets on his bed. Then I’ll take him to the theater for his next-to-last performance of As You Like It.  It’s been a day… not a bad day at all, just a day where I could’ve taken a nap at any given…