• SundaySnippet: The Spring Fever and a Real Snippet Edition

    THE WINNER OF THE E-BOOK ARC IS SHARI! I EMAILED YOU, SHARI! THANKS EVERYONE FOR STOPPING BY AND FOR COMMENTING!! Yeah, I’ve got it bad, kids. Spring fever has struck here at our little brick house in the city with all the usual symptoms. I’m staring longingly out at the gray rainy days, wishing the sun would come out so I could wander the ‘hood with friend Mary. We stop along the way to admire the tulips and hyacinths and daffodils that are popping up in neighbors’ yards. Last year at this time our peach tree was blooming (too early, I might add), a late frost hit it, and we…

  • 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…

  • 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

    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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  • Saturday Snippet

    I’m going to try a new thing here on the blog–the Saturday Snippet. Each week, I’ll give you a tiny snippet from my current work-in-progress or I may give you a peek into some parts of River’s Edge that aren’t in any of the Four Irish Brothers Winery books. Just a quick chance to follow along with the next River’s Edge books and to look behind the scenes in River’s Edge, Indiana. I’m not going to give context or set up the snippets. I’m simply going to present them here–I hope you are intrigued enough to return for more! Here’s today Saturday Snippet from the new River’s Edge story currently…

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  • Celebrating Indiana Romance Authors: Mary Gardner

    It’s the last day of my January celebration of Indiana Romance Authors, so it seems appropriate to end the month with an budding author–Mary Gardner. Mary is as yet unpublished, but she’s doing all the right things to move her career in that direction. Mary wears many hats as a Christian, mother, grandmother, writer, reader, and manager of her homeowner’s association. She writes romance and romantic women’s fiction with small town settings. Although she is not yet published, she has been a finalist in several contests and won her category in a few. She was a 2007 RWA Golden Hearts finalist and the 2nd runner up in the 2008 –…

  • 8-Sentence Sunday

    8-Sentence Sunday has come around again…time is flying by! We’re still in the scene with Sophie and Ben’s first kiss in The Summer of Second Chances, but this time, we’re in Sophie’s POV… For one brief moment, Sophie wondered if a kiss that had probably been building up for years might turn out to be anticlimactic. It wasn’t. The warm pressure of Ben’s mouth on hers kindled a response that set her pulse hammering. That tiny flicker of longing that had smoldered deep inside her since he’d stepped into the kitchen of the Sandpiper flared to an inferno. His hands moved lower to pull her harder against his warm, muscled…

  • 8-Sentence Sunday

    Sunday!! Our favorite day because it means we get to taste a snippet of so many great writers’ works in progress. Here’s more of mine–yes, I am a great writer! (Thank you, Lani Diane Rich!) We’ve got another eight sentences from The Summer of Second Chances, Book 3 in the Women of Willow Bay series. Last Sunday, Ben was shocked when his plain little editor turned into a sexy flirt, and their dinner together was a totally surprising experience. I’m skipping the rest of the supper scene because I think you need to have the full pleasure of reading it in the actual book. Suffice to say, Ben’s relaxed, deciding…

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  • 8-Sentence Sunday

    It’s snippet time! Last week, in The Summer of Second Chances, we peeked in on Julie trying to convince Sophie to just go for it, seduce Ben, and enjoy a hot summer romance. It’s a couple of nights later and Sophie has decided to give seduction a try. Dressed in a skimpy pink tank top and a white denim miniskirt, she encounters Ben as he’s relaxing on the patio after a long day of writing. Mustering the few vamp skills she has in her arsenal, she goes to work, inviting him to share her supper of salad, cheese and crackers, fresh fruit…and of course, wine. With a little creative punctuation,…

  • 8-Sentence Sunday

    Happy 8-Sentence Sunday, Mes Amies! I’m continuing the meet-cute  scene between Sophie and Ben from my no-longer-untitled third Women of Willow Bay novel (title reveal coming up). Freelance editor Sophie Russo and author Ben Dugan have just seen each other for the first time after working together for over ten years. All their communication has been via email and telephone, so when Ben arrives in Willow Bay, Michigan to rent one of Sophie’s summer cottages in order to finish his novel, it’s their first face-to-face meeting. It’s the night before he’s due, and clad in jammies, wearing no makeup, and with her hair tossed up in a ponytail, Sophie’s slipped…