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 →

So, I’m a little late to the party. I’ve heard people raving about this book for a long time. So I downloaded the sample. And I couldn’t stop–come on. And so I devoured this book. But, it wasn’t all in one sitting. Like Josh and his chocolate Easter egg, I wanted to savor it. This book gets about eleven million stars from me, so that translates to: go buy it. NOW. It’s worth all 899 pennies. It’s better than a movie ticket and you can make your popcorn at home. I’m kidding–home popcorn is never as good as movie popcorn. But it’s so good, you won’tRead More →

Today is exactly 30 days before the official release of My Big Fat Vegas Wedding, Book 2 in the Viva Las Vegas series. Coming up in the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be giving away a beautiful, handmade bracelet to commemorate the story (and I’m throwing in a $25 Amazon gift card, too). Here is the beautiful cover–you can click on it to see it better. Blurb He needs roots. She needs money. A whirlwind wedding could solve all their problems…if it doesn’t bring the Vegas mob down on their heads. Grace Winters needs a miracle in the form of cash. A youngRead More →

I plot. I spend weeks figuring out characters, locations, and flaws. And then I dig in deep. I plot my story out, by acts and beats, down to each and every scene of my story. And, sometimes, those scenes have beats and entire stretches of dialog in the notes. Thinking Through Our Fingers: In the Mind of an Outliner – Arcs and Structure. This is front loading a story with lots of work. I know this. But as a teacher, mom, wife, and all the other things, I realized I was doing more work trying to keep a story in my head than taking theRead More →

This month marks the one-year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing. She passed less than two years after her husband, my grandfather. They’ve been on my mind a lot lately. I catch my thoughts slipping into memories, like a bittersweet treat. I saw a typewriter today and thought I’d share one of the many reasons I love them so much. When I was 15, I wanted a typewriter. I am a techie–always have been–and a writer. I take my wording quite seriously and always have. This typewriter had a small word-processing feature on it. Not to give away my age, but this would’ve been summer ofRead More →

One of the big things I struggle with when starting a story is likeability. The general premise is that a reader needs to be able to connect with a character, that the character should have redeemable qualities so that the reader can like him or her. I have two issues with this. First of all, I’ve written nice alphas and I’ve written jerky alphas–no one cares. These guys don’t have to be likable. They need to be heroic. They can be jerks and still live by their own code of ethics. I have zero problems pulling this off, but it bugs that heroes are givenRead More →

Each newsletter will highlight four different authors. You’ll find new excerpts, books on sale, book boyfriends (<3), and author spotlights. Each newsletter will also feature contests (plural) that you’ll automatically be entered to win by virtue of just being a subscriber.Read More →

I recently finished Magnate by Joanna Shupe. This first in a trilogy gripped me until the very. last. page. Like, I went and bought the prequel novella, read it in a day, then pre-ordered the other two books. This month and January will be good reading months for me. And even though it’s set in New York City’s Gilded Age (which Wikipedia tells me is from the 1870s to about 1900), I decided a book this great had to offer some quality dating advice. So, you’re welcome. Don’t have silly, girly ideas, like thinking for yourself or working. That’s beneath the elite women. Unless, you’re awesome, and evenRead More →

Scrivener. Although I still make use of paper, I keep my entire outline in Scrivener. I didn’t for the story I wrote before my current one. I kept them on index cards. Then I got sick and didn’t write for a month. And misplaced my cards. Scariest week of my life, thinking I was going to have to recreate that outline.Read More →

I’ve recently been puzzling over a story that seemed to have everything going for it… and it just faltered. I’d written a hundred pages and blah, boring, and the heroine was just bitchy. It wasn’t working. Then I realized I started the story too late. We’ve all heard the warnings about starting a story too soon, but this was different. All the good, clicky stuff happened before the story started. And I just figured, hey, great backstory. Except it should’ve been story. I kept playing with it in my mind, turning it around, and I would always come back to what if I wrote about the before?Read More →