Happy Tuesday All, If you've been around Christmas shopping and all that, you've probably seen Christmas decorations up. I love seeing them--but then again, this is probably my favorite time of year. Texas isn't so hot, carols are in the air, hot drinks, warm blankets, good books, parties, family, the Christmas Church readings, all of it. I'm a big fan!  I think the evergreen wreaths are so pretty. I don't know what it is, but when I see them hanging off of buildings it just makes me think the buildings are prettier. This weekend I told my husband I wanted to put some lights up on the house. So, I think me and my son are going to help decorate this weekend--maybe even get the tree up! So, do you decorate for Christmas? Are you started/finished/almost done Christmas shopping? What have you got going on? Happy writing and hope your season is "Merry and bright"! Have A Terrific Tuesday!

Happy Thursday Everybody, For those of you in the USA (and for those who aren't but who celebrate the holiday) I wish all of you a very happy, blessed, and safe Thanksgiving. What's everyone's plans? We're getting together with my parents and some others. Dad does the majority of the cooking and baking and he's awesome at both. (My husband looks forward to the turkey and apple pie LOL). Oh and tomorrow is Black Friday...so who's going to be out Christmas Shopping on Black Friday? Have A Thankful Thursday!

Happy Tuesday All, Hope everyone enjoyed Ciara Gold's interview. If there's any author I interviewed that you wanted to read, check the margin of my blog and click on the one you want. I've interviewed:  Elizabeth Pina, Laura Childs, Christie Craig, MaryJanice Davidson & Anthony Alongi, Kim Lenox, Shanna Swendson and Ciara Gold. I do have a published author scheduled for December (eek, gotta send that author the interview questions LOL). If there's a particular author you want me to try and get an interview with, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Now, here's the follow up to the interviews: Elizabeth Pina had a new E-book come out a few months ago, Cross My Heart her website has information on how to get your hands on that story. Ciara Gold announced her new release coming in December in the interview I did with her. Laura Childs has new books coming out at different times (so check her website for the information). (The cover for he...

Happy Friday All, I'm sorry I haven't been around much. I've been editing and writing and reading and family life...so it's been busy on my end. However, I am happy to introduce to you a friend of mine, and commenter on this blog, Ciara Gold . Ciara writes everything from Sci-Fi Fantasy Romance to Fantasy to Historical. She's got quite the imagination (loved the idea of dragons--don't know it is, but sometimes dragons fascinate me). I've read one of her Sci-Fi Fantasy Romances called Celestial Dragon (which has dragons in it for all you dragon lovers). Anyway, without further ado I give you...Ciara Gold! Me: In Celestial Dragon you mixed Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Romance together, what made you decide to do that? Ciara: Good question. Is "dunno" a valid answer? Seriously, I was pressed for time and after cutting my writing teeth on a historical western, I wanted to write something where I wasn't constrained by facts. While I did do so...

Happy Tuesday All, Have I ever mentioned I love this time of year? I love the colder weather, I love family get togethers and all of that. I'm thrilled the Christmas Season is seeping in and that I finally started my Christmas Shopping...although, I'm behind. You see, normally I start in October (I have several people to shop for and some are easier than others). I thought about talking to my husband and going ahead and getting some of it done in October, but other things kept demanding my attention. So now, I've started. I don't object to Christmas shopping because I enjoy picking out just the right thing for someone. My problem, like I suggested above, happens when someone is hard to shop for. But when I get a chance to be creative shopping can be fun. Of course, I have to support my fellow authors. So, many of whom I shop for receive books. Fortunately I come from a family of readers, and pretty much the people I get books for are readers, too. So...

Happy Tuesday All, Every now and again we all need that "pick-me-up". That little something that encourages us, strengthens us, inspires us and keeps us going. The other day at Barnes And Noble Bookstore I found a magnet that says "Never, never, never give up!" and I put  that on my refrigerator. I'm thinking of taping sayings like that throughout my home to keep me going. I mean there's plenty of things we can come up with to motivate us. Like:  "If you don't write it, how will that story get out there?" I don't know who came up with that one, or if I just pulled that out of my imagination, but it works. No matter what side of the profession you're on (whether writer, editor, agent, publisher, critique partner, etc.) we all need those things that gear us up and keep us moving. So, today I'm keeping mind what I owe my characters and stories: my very best work and effort I can put in. I owe them my time, talent, and...

Happy Thursday Everyone, Ever gone through your manuscript after a critique to edit and found that somehow you either left out a word, put in a wrong word, or somehow didn't manage to spell the word right? Two good things about this: 1.  You can take it out and fix the problem 2.  You just might have a hilarious outtake on your hands. (This is one of the reasons why it's important to edit your work before querying/sending it to an agent and/or editor!) One such thing happened to me awhile back. I had someone critique a manuscript of mine and I was going through one of the chapters and I came to this line: I take out my eyes. The note by it from the person critiquing the story read something along these lines:  Neat trick. How she do that? Oopsie! That was supposed to read:  I take out my keys. I don't know why it read "eyes" but I laughed over it. The good news is, not only did I laugh, but I fixed it so the sentence read "ke...

Happy Tuesday All, Wow, it's really been awhile and I apologize. I'm still polishing, but getting closer to being done. Should be done soon (I hope). Someone once told me that writing wasn't a sprint that it was a marathon. I thought about that and decided that it was more than a marathon. It was a triathlon. Now why do I say that? Because each stage of writing has its own events and a triathlon has 3 events and I can break down the basic outline for getting a book out into 3 events (this is a very simplistic breakdown, by the way): Event One:  Writing/Brainstorming.  -- This is the idea and warm up...maybe it's a simple event or maybe it takes awhile. Event Two:  Editing . Editing is its own event because there's many stages to it. I'm going to use swimming references:  Freestyle--your basic edits / Breaststroke -- more complicated, maybe a critique partner's comments or something to that effect / The Butterfly--the extra complicated, in-depth, ...