Craft
Writer Interrupted…to research
Help! I need to find out what a dead body looks like after being in the water for 24 hours (a bayou to be exact). Or, I need to describe how an alligator sounds. These are just a few things I had to stop writing on my current story and dig around until I found…
Follow up on Fiction Editor
In her last post, Meredith Efken, freelance fiction editor and friend, shared about what a freelance editor can and can’t do for your! You might want to check it out first, then jump back over here and read what other great tips she has for us! As a freelance editor, I have seen my editing…
Michelle Sutton’s review of The Betrayed by Lisa T. Bergren
About the book: A religious thriller. An epic historical. An award-winning author with one million books in print. Second in the breathtaking trilogy. The first book in Lisa T. Bergren’s Gifted trilogy, The Begotten, was hailed by Library Journal as “a full-bodied, absorbing tale that combines authentic historical detail with a universally appealing and gripping…
GROWING GRAMMAR: Where were you on National Grammar Day?
In case you neglected to mark this on your calendar, and since Hallmark has not yet officially designated it a greeting-card holiday, you may have missed: In the name of educational fun (and, no, that’s not an oxymoron), and to exercise your pointer finger, I’m providing the following links for your clicking: The Society for…
Saturday Morning Review: Nobody by Creston Mapes
What do you get when you take an ambitious reporter out for a story and a murdered homeless man with a surprisingly large amount of money in his pocket? You get NOBODY! Through one rash decision, Hudson Ambrose is faced with his own human degradation while seeking out the truth about this much -loved, mysterious…
Time Management 101: Marketing and Speaking
Just a smidge of what I do in regards to marketing and my speaking schedule. Marketing: 1. I’ve hired a nearly-fulltime assistant to help with marketing. She posts to my blogs, formats my newsletters, sends out packages, etc. 2. I fit my radio interviews, etc. into my calendar. I also schedule in things like email…
Love stories
This month I posted about the significance of Valentine’s Day on another blog. I wanted to share some here because after all I’m an inspirational romance writer so romance/love is important to me in my profession. Valentine’s Day is a day we celebrate romance or better yet love. I’m not necessarily talking about the love…
Simplify by Paul Borthwick
If you’ve been following my blog these last few weeks you already know I’ve been feeling a little stressed out and over committed. Simplify by Paul Borthwick was just what I needed. And God knew it even before I agreed to participate in this book review. Everything about this book is simple. The cover, the…
Quick Fiction Fixes – Settings and Contrast to show emotion
We’re all busy, whether working full-time or chasing/chauffeuring kids around all day. Yet we’re also writers, striving to get our words on paper and then polish it to a sparkle. This column gives quick fixes for fiction manuscripts specifically for busy writers. Pick and choose what works best for you! Setting: One of the best…
Time Management 101: Deadlines
How to handle deadlines! 1. My family used to MOAN during deadline month. They basically never saw Mom. For the last few books I’ve been trying spread out the deadlines. I schedule in daily writing times for every project through the months, and I do my best to meet those goals. If I can accomplish…