“God, I can’t do this. I can’t make this story work.” I’d reached that point in the rough draft where everything seems hopeless. The characters feel flat; the plot twisted beyond help. I’d been there with Mistaken. I’d pushed through it with Out of the Ruins (Book 1 of the Golden Gate Chronicles, releasing in … Read More
I long ago gave up the idea of being the cool parent that all my kids’ friends would adore. Since I make up stories and talk to invisible people, I’m much better suited to being the “weird mom.” As a writer, I probably spend too much time locked in my house, or hanging out with … Read More
As a special treat for my blog readers, I want to make sure you are aware of a fantastic contest being offered in celebration of the release of An Untamed Heart by one of my favorite authors–Lauraine Snelling. Make sure to enter soon, the contest ends tomorrow–Thursday, October 24, 2013. In An Untamed Heart, twenty-year-old … Read More
It’s funny how certain words remain in our vocabulary even after technology has left them far behind. My 11-year-old daughter was just telling me how she’d seen a meme (and there’s a funny NEW word) on Instagram that joked how kids of today’s generation will never understand the satisfaction of angrily flipping a cell phone … Read More
My eleven-year-old’s room is in a pretty sad state: Beatrix Potter curtains, pale pink walls, scattered piles of forgotten toys, and stacks and stacks of books… It doesn’t match the young woman she’s becoming. After a long day of middle school, ballet practice, and an evening chatting with friends on FaceTime, the last thing she … Read More
Somewhere between the shampoo and the conditioner the idea hit me: the perfect solution to the plot problem I’d been wrangling with the past few weeks. My mind zeroed in on different scenarios. “And then the hero could do THIS. Woo-hoo, wouldn’t the heroine hate that? She’d react like this… And then in the next … Read More
I don’t know about where you live, but here in Oregon, fall has definitely, um… fallen. And with our gloomy, rainy weather, nothing cheers me up like cracking open a good book. (Do books really crack?) This week, I’m recommending On Distant Shores by one of my all-time favorite authors, Sarah Sundin. I’ve devoured every … Read More
I just returned from a trip and one thing I enjoy about flying is l-o-n-g stretches of uninterrupted reading time. At home, there’s always kids, work, chores… not to mention TV and Facebook. There’s something about a trip that makes you want to dive into a hefty novel. This week I had the joy of … Read More
I recently returned from the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Annual Conference. Close to 600 attended this year, beginning writers all the way up to multi-published, best-selling authors. As far as writers conferences go, this had to be one of my all-time best experiences, partially because it was an opportunity to celebrate the release of … Read More
On July 16th, we celebrated the launch of my debut novel, Mistaken, with a huge 1920s party. It took quite a bit of planning and preparation, and I must confess–I did much of my research on the internet. From Pinterest, to blogs, to Google… the ideas were out there! Now, in homage of all those … Read More