Category: Stories

After months of writing like gangbusters and ignoring the healthier lifestyle I’m supposed to be living, I feel the pendulum swinging back in the other direction. My weight loss blog has been getting all the attention (and is already closing in on 400 hits for the month), but I...

I’ve been having lots of family fun on vacation. Driving around the country, exploring Mall of America, playing games with the kids … But I’ve had next to no time to write. One day when I fired up the computer, the Boyfriend interrupted me about 10 minutes later. I’d...

Now that I’ve had time to synthesize my score sheets from the last contest I entered, I’m pleased to say I’m on the right track. No, I did not final. The max score was a 161; mine was 130-something. That being said, I wasn’t displeased with the results. That...

That’s approximately how much I’ve written on Bethany and Cody’s story … and I have yet to get them to the island so their adventure can begin. They’ve been taking a side trip, with Beth’s mom attempting a reconciliation. I guess since I have a total of at least...

It always amazes me how attending my RWA chapter meeting recharges my creative battery. Sure, it means a long day for me. I usually don’t get to bed until at least 2 a.m., and I’m up before 8 on meeting day. We meet from 10:30-ish to 2 p.m. and...

Sometimes, all it takes is a little shove to get moving again. I received one  today, courtesy of one of my NARWA sisters. Jacqui Jacoby was a guest blogger over at Seekerville. The topic? Surviving the Abyss. In it, she told the story of her lost year of productivity,...

OK, it’s not a disaster on the same plane as the Gulf oil spill … but it is a major annoyance. I’ve been editing “Beauty and the Ballplayer.” When I swapped my alternate beginning,  I noticed the word count dipped below 50K. I thought that was weird, because I...

A couple of weeks ago, the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog (one of my faves) was host to a sometimes heated discussion on safe sex in romance novels. The author of the post, Kelly Fitzpatrick (who you might recognize from yesterday’s post), started the discussion by asking a few questions:...

Again, I say, just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking. No, I’ve been busy. I had to trim a five-page synopsis to a single page for the Harlequin American Editor Pitch contest. (Amazing what becomes important and what you suddenly realize can be left out...

Thanks to one of my NARWA sisters, I found another contest to enter … a chance to win a pitch with a Harlequin American editor. Since I’ve long envisioned “Operation Snag Mike Brad” as an American Romance, I decided to go for it. I can’t say I always envisioned...