Happy Sunday All, Normally I don't update on the weekends, but lately I've been super busy during the week and I'm about to be even more busy. There's been a lot of emotions going on lately as I went through the holidays missing my deceased friend, Sarah. It's not over yet, because on February 20th, it'll mark 1 year since her death. Today I went over to her and her husband's apartment to help him and Sarah's mom go through Sarah's things. There were some moments of laughter, some tears, and in some cases, emotionally distancing myself from the whole thing just so I wouldn't breakdown and cry too much. I was allowed to keep several items that had belonged to Sarah, which was a comfort. Currently, as I write this, I have a small, very soft teddy bear that I was given sitting on my lap. There's things going to other friends, that will be sorted more as time goes on. However, after the emotionally exhausting day, a wonderful thing ha...

Happy Weekend Everybody, Normally I don't post on the weekend, but today is stop #2 of the Bethany Averie All's Fair In Love & Lion Blog Tour... Today's stop is as the guest of Stella, over on the Soul Mate Publishing Blog. Stella is a chapter mate of mine. She's encouraging, generous, and fun to be around. We've had a blast bouncing ideas off each other and at one time critiqued one another's work. She's very creative, and I enjoy knowing her. There's also two other Soul Mate Publishing authors being featured along with me! So come on out and check it all out. Do I have a muse...?  Well the only way to find out, is to join me on the Soul Mate Publishing Blog ! Have A Great Weekend!

In honor of the fallen real life heroes/heroines of 10 years ago... Please take a moment of silence to remember and/or pray.

Happy November Everybody! The skies are clear, the sun is shining, it was freezing in our house because we didn't put on the heat last night, although it's supposed to be in the 70's today, but cooler weather, yay! Hope those who are supposed to remembered to set back their clocks (remember: "spring forward, fall back!") We did, when we got up this morning. Today is All Saints' Day for Catholics (remembering women and men who exemplified following Christ's words and having a close relationship with the Lord). We went to Mass last night for the vigil. Today is also when celebrating my dad's birthday since we couldn't on his actual day. So spending time at him and my mom's house today. As to writing, not sure how much I'm going to get done due to all the other things I have to do today (still gotta decorate the cake--Dad had me make a carrot cake, thank you, Joanne Fluke for the wonderful Carrot Cake recipe in Carrot Cake Murder- -not a hard ...

Hi all, If you haven't checked out link (in my previous post) about Todd Stone, please do so. There is a ton of information I got out of the workshop, that if I tried to post it all in this post, it would be insanely long. So, I'll give you all some short cuts: First of all, the workshop was called Novelists Boot Camp; the slides we saw are available in the margins of his website if you click here . Worksheets include this one (with the map) and several things from his book . Second of all, if you can get to a Todd Stone workshop, I highly recommend it. He's informative, he's fun, he's helpful and he's dynamic. He had us cracking up more times than I can count. But he offered great advice. I made more progress on figuring out what to do with the 3 scenes I brought with me (he has to bring 3 printed out scenes from a finished or work in progress) than I have in a long time. Granted, most of my pages now look like a war zone with lines and arrows and notes ever...

Afternoon One and All, Well, it's Sunday and a very pretty one at that. I love this time of year when the weather starts looking nice (and feeling nice). Love having it get cooler and busting out the sweaters, jackets and such. Feels so cozy when it's cold out and you bundle up in coats, hats and pants. I love this time of year. Yesterday's party was a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing all who came. Some of my closest friends (and some I haven't seen in a long while) were there. It was great. 30 isn't too bad. Just odd in the sense that it feels weird to think that this is the era where I'm 30 and years from now some other time period will be another person's 30 era. Time really is a strange thing to contemplate. Especially changes in music, movies, dress, you name it. Kind of like how the book business and the weather go through seasons, I think humans do the same. We all have our springs, summers, autumns and winters and it doesn't necessarily have to co...

Afternoon Folks, Happy Sunday Sundae and all that :-) Ever had a moment when you're writing where you go "Oh duh!" Or "Hey! That's what I needed to do."? One of mine happened yesterday. I was frustrated with Chapter 2 and 3 in Conjure A Man having rewritten them several times and it still wasn't working. Then I thought, "Wait, what about the original chapter 2 from before I changed chapter 1?" I hunted up the file and to my great relief I hadn't deleted it. So, now chapter 2 is back and I can relax and think "It really works best there." I think chapter 3 will be easier, now. But has that happened to you? You have this moment where you've tried and tried and tried, only to realize the original was best...go find and and lo, and behold, there it is! Problem solved. Had those moments? Anyway, today's short and sweet (like a sundae, ha, ha, bad joke). Hope You Have A Scrumptious Sunday!

Evening All, I haven't really anything real inspired to write tonight. Got a lot on my mind. The other day I did some writing on Conjure A Man since I finished going through it from page 1. It helped to remind myself a bit. I probably need to add some description, but otherwise, I think it's making some progress. I've been doing A LOT of reading this weekend. I finished the Kerrelyn Sparks book and I'm about (or nearly) 1/2 done with The Host by Stephenie Meyers. How about y'all? What's the weekend been like? Did you have fun? Have A Stupendous Sunday!

Good Evening One & All, Shakespeare wrote in Romeo & Juliet, "What's in a name?...A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Disney talked about names in Aladdin in the lyrics, "Better get a nom de plume ." (the song, "One Jump"). So, for a writer, what does a nom de plume (or, pen name) say about the author? It could be a different spelling of the author's name, it could be a name that has a significance. They could keep their first name, but change the last, or change both. A pen name is also the name a writer will write under for his or her books. The name that his or her readers will recognize them. The name on the autographs and the one where people will say, "Oh yes, that's so and so, they wrote..." Some authors write under their own names. Others, for a variety of reasons, choose a pen name. What about you? Are you considering a pen name? What have you looked at when thinking of your nom de plume ? For myself, I...

Happy Sunday Night Everyone, LOL, if you're wondering how I pulled my muscle in my shoulder on Saturday, you can thank Stephanie for posting the question in the comment section and the answer is there, as well. How's my shoulder? Glad you asked. It's better. Not all better, yet. Still a little tender, but husband massaged it and showed me how me a stretch and I've been laying on the heating pad every now and again and being gentle with that shoulder/arm. So it's healing. As to writing, the reconstruction of Conjure A Man has been smooth. I'm thinking this was a grand idea. (Kudos go to Tess for affirming my belief that the beginning needed to be changed and overhauled; I still maintain that you're awesome). I've gotten questions answered by my editor for Surreal and hoping something brilliant comes my way to help me improve that one, until then, I have to just keep working on the edits. But let's review, Surreal shall we? Let's go with some ...

Good Evening All! Well...today has proven interesting. For one thing I woke up from having a dream about my Dad baptizing my son in a swimming pool at night, during 60 degree (or slightly warmer) weather. My husband looked at me and said "Oookay." I figured out where the swimming pool figures (saw one on the way home from the Library yesterday and wished with all my might that there was a swimming pool--that didn't cost much and that we could go to--near my house--that wasn't "This neighborhood's pool ONLY"). As to my Dad baptizing my son part...I have no idea. As far as I know my Dad has never baptized (nor been given the authority to do so) ever. Color me confounded. As to the rest...well this morning I finished reading Kerrelyn Sparks' How To Marry A Millionaire Vampire . I thought it was so much fun (loved Gregori, he was hailirious). So, I looked up the next one on the online catalog for my Library, only to find out there's 19 requests for i...