Over the weekend Amazon threw me a whole orchard of lemons. What happened? My publishing account closed and all of my indie and republished books were removed and my earned payments kept. It’s a #preorder #giveaway with @Cara_Putman for We Three Kings, her new book… Click To Tweet It was a writer’s worst nightmare, and sometime I’ll share the full …
The Unique Challenges of Writing Out of Order
Last month I wrote a prequel to my next legal suspense. One challenge was that it was written AFTER the first book in the legal suspense series. I had/have a very detailed outline. It was why I could write the book so very fast. And I also had/have a detailed character study of the hero and heroine. But I heard …
You know you’re a writer when…+ Giveaways
This week I had to finish editing this book that’s been giving me fits on suspense, so here are four ways lately I’ve known I’m a writer. Do any resonate or catch you by surprise? Now for a few quick giveaways: In celebration of the release of my new book Across the Shores, I’m giving away a copy of it …
Writing, Swimming, and Giveaways, oh my!
Last month I participated in NANOWRIMO, a race to write 50K words in the month of November. It gave me the competitive drive to write 44,000 while also macro and line-editing a novella that will release next year. But the result of writing that fast was a sequence of chapters and scenes that might — or might not — actually …
Behind the Scenes on Writing with Other Authors
People often ask me about writing a novella collection with other authors. Most of the time writing is me alone at my computer. Most people can imagine that. When you add other authors to the mix, they begin to wonder what the process is like and how it differs. Wonder what it’s like writing with other authors? @cara_putman pulls back …
What Should I Write Next? + Giveaway
This week I turned in final grades for my day job — professor at a Big Ten University. I have to say the big exhale I felt as the last one was entered was fantastic. This summer I’ll do a little research and developing new classes, but I plan to read and write. A lot. First up on the writing …
Headshots and Deep Thoughts
One of the joys of the writing life is getting headshots. Really. I mean who doesn’t love getting their photo snapped, over and over, and over and over. I really don’t mind, but I was surprised to realize it had been four and a half years since my last headshots were taken. My time flies when you’re stuck at home! …
Final Voting: Name My Next Town
Y’all, I had so much fun watching the votes come in. We had over 530! Woot! Y’all are amazing. The best part was not only did you vote on what the next town should be named, you also gave me ideas for businesses. You. Are. The. Best. As a thank you, I’ll be mailing books to ten randomly selected people. …
Want to help me brainstorm?
I’m in the midst of planning and scheming my next book series. In fact that’s what I spent time on yesterday and will spend more hours on tomorrow.
There is so much that goes into that process. I create characters. Heroes. Heroines. Supporting characters. Pets. Churches. Jobs. Places they work. And towns.
Sometimes I use real places. Other times I’ve used fictional. Both work and can be fun. But for this new series I want to create a new small, bedroom community outside Washington, D.C. Think of it as a commuter community. That means I need a name, and a couple weeks ago on Facebook I got my readers involved in generating ideas. It was so much fun reading their 80+ ideas. Now I wanted to give you a chance to join the fun! I wanted to invite you to be part of my brainstorming process on this series.
Books, Edits, & Thanks, Oh My
Very early Wednesday morning, I turned in the macro or substantive edit for my next book, Lethal Intent. With this book I spent a lot of time on the hero and heroine because I wanted to make them deep. And that meant lots of flow charts and things. In my office I have a blank wall right next to my …