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In the last few months, though, I’ve started to feel a little discomfort. Writing is highly personal. I’m not saying I act out the risque scenes in my novels at all, but I do fill every sentence with a bit of my soul. And that, for me, is far more personal. Do I really want to deal with people being able to climb inside my head that way? Not people, reader people or other writers–they get it. But, say, those I come in contact with at work or who attend church with me.Read More →

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What do the things in the title have in common? Me, getting sentimental. And overusing Kleenexes. Over at Heart-Shaped Glasses today, I’m blogging about (reflecting on, actually, since that’s our theme this month) the tradition I started for my girls when they were little nearly nineteen years ago. Of course, I got sappy. Because, hello? I cry over commercials. Does anyone remember the Kodak one, with the little girl dancing on her dad’s shoes and then they’re dancing at her wedding? I still remember the song. I think Michael Bolton sung it, but don’t hold that against me. (Tried to embed the video above, butRead More →

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Writer’s Digest is studying the romance novel today (and giving you a bit of a glimpse into the book I’m currently reading, On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels). I say: If you’re not a beginner, the first 85 pages are full of info you’ve heard before.  But then, it’s writing gold.  Give it a shot. My favorite, the real “formula” of a romance: What romance novels have in common is this: A romance novel is the story of a man and a woman who, while they’re solving a problem that threatens to keep them apart, discover that theRead More →

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’tis be, as described, th’ best character name finder ever. Let’s spy wit’ ye eye, ye can pick which letters it can’t or must start wit’ or end wit’, th’ length ‘n number ‘o syllables, even what letter sequence it contain. Then thar’s style preferences, like: Traditional, Contemporary/Invented, Passin’ Fashion ‘o th’ Past, etc. Then ye decide how popular a name ye want ‘n whether it be popular in locales outside th’ U.S. Extremely awesome. ‘n once it gives ye a list ‘o names, then ye really start diggin’ in. ETA: This post is in Pirate, because it’s…. Talk Like A Pirate Day! Using theRead More →

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By the time you read this, people won’t be talking so much about the new Netflix series, Bridgerton, based upon the Julia Quinn series. A check into my Kindle tells me I read the first book, The Duke and I, in 2014. It was published nearly a decade-and-a-half before that. As far as historical romance goes, I was a bit late to the party. I’d read contemporary romance for fifteen years or so and been writing it for ten. I didn’t see an appeal to the nobility that seemed privileged and ridiculous in practice. Of course, I’m speaking of actual nobility, not the romanticized versionRead More →

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I can tell you that my family’s reading interests are diverse. My husband eats up rock star biographies on Audible, my youngest loves poetry and fan-fiction, my oldest loves fan-fiction and manga, but also has a special place in her heart for some paranormal Nora Roberts trilogies. And me? What won’t I read would be a shorter list. So, yes. All of my Xmas recs will be books. That’s a given. But I’m going to highlight a choice from me (how will I ever pick just one??), both of my daughters (my stepdaughter is busy gestating a second grandbaby and caring for the first soRead More →

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It’s Dating Advice from Romance Novels day! It’s been a while since I did one of these so I really wanted to add one this month. However, the most recent book I read was not a romance, but a Star Wars novel. Yes, I am a proud, proud nerd. I have no small amount of hero worship for Princess Leia/General Organa (as portrayed by Carrie Fisher–who I also have no small amount of hero worship for). Read More →

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If you’ve paid attention to the Cupid’s Cafe world, you’ll know that it’s a multi-author series. Besides my contribution, Landra Graf has written two moving books, Katherine McIntyre has written one powerful story, and Catherine Peace has written an upcoming installment that I’m super hyped to read. And I have a sequel to Exactly Like You. It’s not contracted by our publisher (yet–I’m optimistic!), but I am so in love with these people, y’all. If you’ve read ELY, you may remember Aiden has a friend who is also a firefighter. His name is Kurt and he is a douchebag. He is not a nice guy,Read More →

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Like here’s the awful thing about this year: I don’t need to tell you. You get it. Every single one of you knows exactly what I’m talking about. And, I don’t want to tempt fate, but just when you think it can’t get worse? Oh, it can. It’s funny, because for the past… I think 4 years or so, my best friend and writing soul mate have had this hopeful thing we do to reassure one another. “Next year will be better. I mean, it can’t be worse.” And every year… we are wrong. But never were we wrong like this year. I told her,Read More →

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This has been a hell of a year. And, yeah, I know it’s too early for a year in review thing, so I’ll save that. But, like, for real. First of all, the publisher for my Vegas books isn’t publishing books anymore. Right in the dang middle. Well, two-thirds of the way through. So, I self-published. Which has been a long learning curve. (I’m totally still learning because there is so freaking much to learn.) For now, they’re all three available in Kindle Unlimited so go read the hell out of those, lovelies. Second, I went back to the day job. It’s a different day jobRead More →