Happy October Everyone! I'm posting this later in the day than I normally would. But, sometimes it's fun to do something a tiny bit different. (In this case put up a blog post after 4pm my time, when it would normally be up early in the morning). October always used to give me a sort of "giddy" feeling when I was growing up. I guess because my birthday is this month (Oct. 15th). But sometimes, on rare occasions, my part of Texas would start getting cooler. I always liked the little nip in the air that hinted at the holidays to come. The day I'm writing this post it was 88 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the day, but now is up to 90. Hardly autumn-feeling weather. I'm going along querying Sugar & Frost (the manuscript's "mood board" is the image in the center). I do hope an agent gives me an offer. I love this story so much! It's fun and whimsical and definitely romantic. Sugar & Frost's Mood Board Some people call "romance-fo...

Happy Wednesday All, Tuesday afternoon I wasn't paying attention and tripped over the ottoman on my way to my computer desk. I rammed my left foot into it, stubbing my 3 middle toes on my left foot. It hurt big time. I had to ice them down and try not to walk too much. In the evening they were better, but still... ...it's made me wonder...do writers have to be graceful and able to avoid obstacles and stubbed toes and such? Because if we have to be perfectly graceful on our feet, I'm in trouble. You see, I'm a klutz. Not all the time, mind you, but every so often, I have myself a klutzy moment. Some are worse than others (like in high school when I tripped over a tree stump) and some aren't so bad. But seriously...if we're supposed to be perfectly balanced, then what am I going to do? Most of the time I do all right, but I can be a klutz and I know other writers who are klutzy, too. So, are you a klutz or perfectly graceful on your feet that you put a ballet danc...

Happy Friday Everyone, Ever seen the musical (or watched the movie version) The Music Man ? In it the mayor says "Watch your phraseology!" when his daughter uses slang. While thinking about this blog post the words "I devour books" came to mind, then of course, that quote popped into my head. Have you noticed that if you translated certain phrases literally they wouldn't be quite as fun as they are? Like devouring books. Who really wants to eat books? (Other than Kim Lenox's character in her Shadow Guards series ) I mean I read books at a pretty fast rate, so figuratively I devour them, but literally? Nah, I don't think I'd want to eat them. What about the figure of speech, "I could eat a horse"? Obviously we all know it means the person's very hungry, but what if someone (like say, the character, Amelia Bedelia --books by Peggy Parish ) took the speaker seriously and served them up a horse and handed them a fork and knife? Speaking o...

Happy Tuesday Folks, If you were to hunt through my pack-rat storage areas eventually you'd come across my high school's literary magazine (that during my four years of high school was only published once, well, as far as I know). In there, if you know my maiden name, you'd find a poem written by me. If you read the lines carefully you'd find out there's a mistake. I forgot a word. I believe it was that little tiny word, "and". For a writer, that's excessively embarrassing to forget a word, misspell a word, typos or putting in the wrong word. We're supposed to know words. They're our life. Yet, even us writers, with some sort of insight into the world of words, are, in fact, human. Yes...*GASP* we make mistakes. Despite how much on a pedestal you put a writer you particularly like, that writer has, at least once in his or her lifetime, made a mistake...somewhere, somehow in some century. The other night, in an online conversation with a friend...