• Sunday Snippet: The Book Signing Edition

    This post is going up before I do a book signing here in the Ohio River town that is the inspiration for my fictional town of River’s Edge. I’m speaking to a writers group at 2 p.m. and then signing books at a fun coffeeshop right on Main Street. I’m really looking forward to this event, although I confess that the butterflies in my tummy have butterflies. Speaking is so far out of my wheelhouse, but I think it’s a good exercise to do it, and I’m hoping to do more of it at libraries and book clubs. Today, I’m talking about what a copy editor does and what we…

  • Sunday Snippet: A July Check-In

    Every couple of years, I break out my copy of Sara Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance. She calls it “A Daybook of Comfort and Joy,” and it truly is. If you’ve never read the book, I recommend it highly and it’s even available as an e-book! I downloaded it to my Kindle a few years ago, which makes it easy to have wherever I am, but I’m still partial to the hardback book because it has my notes in it from previous years, and it’s cool to read those, too. I’ve been doing the Simple Abundance meditations this year because I need that centering right now. Part of the meditation is…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Me & Writing Edition

    Someone once asked me to share something I learned since becoming a writer. The list is endless, but there a couple of things I can name right off the top of my head. The first is writing is hard work. Anyone who tells you different is either lying or not a writer. It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a novel or a back cover blurb, a short story or a 500-word magazine article. Writing is hard. It requires discipline and creativity, time and research, and most of all a love of the game. If you don’t love to write, if the process itself isn’t an intrinsic part of who you…

  • Author Spotlight: Bestie Liz Flaherty has a New Book Coming Soon!

    We have a winner! Cheri J, you are Liz’s winner. Liz will be in touch!  What’s more fun than shouting out my bestie’s new book? Not much! Today I’m welcoming Liz Flaherty to the Spotlight with pre-order info for her newest novel, Pieces of Blue. I’ve read this one because, you know, besties… and it is purely Liz’s gorgeous storytelling! She’s here to tell us about it and she has a fun giveaway, too, so read on! Liz Flaherty has spent the past several years enjoying not working a day job, making terrible crafts, and writing stories in which the people aren’t young, brilliant, or even beautiful. She’s decided (and…

  • Author Spotlight: Kyra Jacobs Takes Us Back to Bourbon Falls!

    I’m so pleased to welcome fellow Tule author and fellow Hoosier, Kyra Jacobs to the Spotlight today! Kyra Jacobs is an extroverted introvert who writes of love, humor, and mystery in the Midwest and beyond. Her romance novels range from sweet contemporary to romantic suspense and paranormal/fantasy. No matter the setting, Kyra employs both comedy and chaos to help her characters find inspiration and/or redemption on their way to happily ever after. When this Hoosier native isn’t pounding out scenes for her next book, she’s likely outside, elbow-deep in snapdragons or spending quality time with her sports-loving family. Kyra also loves to read, tries to golf, and is an avid…

  • Author Spotlight: Meet Audrey Schuyler Lancho

    One of the best parts of being in a writer’s circle is meeting new authors. Audrey Schuyler Lancho and I met when we were both part of a sprinting group with Bryn Donovan last fall. We didn’t really get to visit all that much because the focus was sprinting. I got a lot of writing done, but in the minutes between sprints, I got to chat with the other writers in the group. It was fun! Audrey Lancho is the author of emotionally moving and uplifting historical and contemporary clean romance. Audrey’s Victorian romances include Seven Days at Mannerley and the forthcoming A Telephone at Mannerley, published by Vinspire Publishing.…

  • Author Spotlight: Liz Flaherty is Here with the Gal’s Guide Anthology!

    I’m always thrilled to welcome bestie Liz Flaherty to the Spotlight, and today is particularly fun because she’s here to tell us about a very special anthology that she is part of. Liz has spent the past several years enjoying not working a day job, making terrible crafts, and writing stories in which the people aren’t young, brilliant, or even beautiful. She’s decided (and has to re-decide most every day) that the definition of success is having a good time. Along with her husband of lo, these many years, kids, grands, friends, and the occasional cat, she’s doing just that. Find her on Facebook or her blog, Window Over the…

  • Sunday Snippet: A “The End” Edition

    Yup…I’m there, well, sorta. I wrote THE END yesterday on Cam and Harper’s book, Made for Mistletoe, but I may still have another tiny scene to write, so that will be today’s mission. This book has been a journey. Christmas books always are. I love writing about Christmas in River’s Edge, but getting really creative and coming up with new holiday stories for my characters is sometimes harder than writing stories that happen at non-holiday times of the year. I confess I write my idea of the perfect Christmas in the River’s Edge books and it looks nothing at all like real Christmas in my life/family. Don’t get me wrong–the…

  • Sunday Snippet: The I’m Ready for Spring Edition

    Spring seems to be springing already and you know, we really haven’t had much of a winter here.  Oh, we’ve had few days of snow, but no real accumulation, and a few days of serious cold, but no long stretches of temperatures below freezing. That’s unusual but certainly not unheard of here in the middle of the United States. I remember lots of mild winters. These are crocuses discovered on one of my walks in the hood, aren’t they sweet? My tulips that neighbor Mary gifted me last fall are starting to peek up–they’re going to be yellow, she says, and I can’t wait to see them bloom! But I…

  • Author Spotlight: Dani Collins Has a New Release!

    Congratulations to Kathleen Shaputis!  You are Dani’s giveaway winner! Thanks to everyone who stopped by, we love talking to our readers.  Y’all know how much I love spotlighting my fellow Tule Publishing authors, right? Well, today, Dani Collins is with me and I couldn’t be more pleased to introduce you to her. She’s here with a brand new series and a fun giveaway. Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. While she is best known for writing contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule Publishing, she also writes historical and erotic…