Disaster Looms

Get ready for an epic disaster tale! I just finished writing a novella featuring my favorite protagonist, the handsome scientist Emerson Crandall. It, of course, includes his clever daughter, Courtney and the adventurous woman he adores (from afar), Maddie. Writing up to 3,000 words a day, I hammered out this disaster-packed story quickly and easily, […]

Mysteries on the Brink

Hooray! I finished the first draft of the second book in my two-part mystery series. (Okay, that sounds like a complicated bunch of numbers– first draft, second book, two-part. Sorry! I’m thinking it’s not great to confuse the reader with my opening line!) I completed the first of the two several months ago and sent […]

Onto Book 2! And Your First Look at the Back Cover Description!

It’s a rare feeling to have confidence in your creation. When I write, I oscillate between ecstasy and despair. Sometimes I write hard, on a roll, the words burbling out, and I think, “Readers will love this!” But then I have a tough day and think, “I’ll just have worms for dinner.” That’s why getting […]

Playing Town

Harriet The Spy. That’s who I’m thinking about this week. It’s because I credit Harriet, the petulant lead character in a 1964 book by Louise Fitzhugh, with fueling my desire to become a novelist. If you haven’t read it, you must. But the reason I felt like Harriet this week is because she, an 11-year-old, […]

Procrastinating, er, Plotting

With For Sissy now available for readers, I’m now plotting my next book.  I should say “books,” because my next work will be a series — a mystery series. I’m a planner, not a pantser, so I outline. My outlines are never proscriptive, but I do rely on them to get me to the last […]

Cover Struggles of an Indy

After leaning that my video advertisement for For Sissy was too violent for Facebook, I made some quick changes so that the ad showed only the book cover, and not my embellishments of a bloody knife, et al.  In hindsight, I could see why FB wouldn’t want to show the implied violence of my original […]