What a wonderful feeling to be able to type “The End” at the finish line of a long arduous writing experience. I have another novel done—really, truly done! And my critique partners are on-board, one even said, “This gave me goose bumps” about the final scene. Goose bumps! Can I get any better than that? It’s out to the betas right now and I’m dying to hear what they think. This book, Like Fine Wine,  may be close to ready, but I’ve got the finish the other one before I can go forward with my plans for it because the heroine in LFW is a secondary character from The Music…

I’m learning about structure, about how to build a story so that characters, events, reactions, and outcomes all come together to create a cohesive plot. I tell a great story, I truly do, but I get bogged down in the details of my characters lives—especially their pasts. It’s a common thing for a writer to do. I sent one of my manuscripts to my favorite book doctor, Lani Diane Rich, who is an incredible writer and co-host of the StoryWonk podcasts. If you aren’t already listening to StoryWonk, you should be. Lani and her husband and partner, Alastair Stephens, know their stuff. Their weekly podcasts are informative and very entertaining.…

One of my favorite authors, Liz Flaherty, tagged me in a blog-trek called The Next Big Thing, so here I am answering questions about my current works in progress (WIP). This is a first for me, I rarely talk about what I’m working on, but maybe I need to do it more often.  I’m tagging five other authors, so be sure to check in with them next Wednesday and see what’s new in their lives. Okay, here goes… What is the working title of your next book? There are two of them: The Music Is You and Like Fine Wine. They’re not a series, but they are connected because I…

I am a word freak, a language maven, a…a vocabularist. Okay, so maybe vocabularist isn’t actually a real word, but it should be because it describes me to a T. Last week, my pal/fellow editor/writer, Mae, came up to the lake to spend part of my writing week with me. We wrote and talked and read and talked and ate and talked and drank wine and talked and…well, you get the picture. One thing Mae and I share is a love of words. We are both fascinated with language and how we use it, especially unusual or quirky terms. Yesterday, she sent me this note referencing something she’d read in…

I’m staying at the lake this week and my intention is to write. No more jotting down ideas on the backs of envelopes or making hurried notes across a scratch pad while I’m doing a quick laundry switch in between editing gigs. No more working out dialogues between my characters by talking into my little DVR while I’m throwing something into the crock pot before heading upstairs to work on someone else’s books. No more feeling deprived because my focus is on fixing other writer’s work instead of writing myself.  I’ve worked my rather ample behind off all summer (although sadly, it’s still there–don’t you wish when we say we…

Book blogger, Mrs. Condit Reads Books, posted a super nice review of RULE NUMBER ONE today. Please come by and check out what she has to say. If you leave a comment, you’re automatically entered into a drawing for a free e-copy of the book. Love to have you stop by and talk to me!

I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s so hard for me write at the moment. It’s not that the books aren’t there. My brain is so full that frequently I have to stop whatever I’m doing, find a scrap of paper and a pencil, and make notes, or my head might explode. The stories are in me, churning and trying to find an outlet, even if it’s nothing more than a post-it and 10 minutes at the kitchen table in between lake laundry and tossing a salad for supper. So why, when I sit down to actually write, can I not translate all these little chunks of paper covered…

.. at Chick Lit Writers. We’re talking about story ideas–how we come by them, what inspires a scene or story and how we create a storyline. What’s your process? Come on by and join in the conversation!