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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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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 →

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Today, I’m interviewing a fellow Cupid’s Cafe author. If you enjoyed Exactly Like You, step back into that mystical matchmaking environment with Captured Memories. What inspired you to write this book? This book leapt out of me in a sweep of pure inspiration. Honestly, it’s thanks to the concept of Cupid’s Café. I loved the idea of writing romances where the hero and heroine are both struggling with real world problems and issues that weren’t getting talked about. While Lori wrote a beautiful book on depression and healing from loss, and Landra’s riveting read featured bipolar disorder and bulimia, I wanted to tackle issues thatRead More →

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I want to preface this by saying that I was contacted by Aleksandra Lechwar, who runs a great Etsy shop called Just 1 More Chapter. Apparently, my Christmas post of great reader gifts was sending Aleksandra some traffic (yay, right?) and he wanted to thank me. He offered to let me pick out a couple of pieces for free, which I gladly did because they looked so cool. I chose two pairs of earrings. One, Wicked, because I adore Elpheba and her story. It’s one of my favorite books. The second set, The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, was because that was a bookRead More →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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I haven’t done one of these in a while. For one thing, I’ve been busy writing! I finished all three of my fifties novellas (and I’m in the middle of editing them right now), I’m just (like this weekend) finished with second round edits on my novel, Infamous, contracted with The Wild Rose Press, and I’ve started the second novel to follow-up Infamous. I’ll have lots more info for you on all of that in the coming months. But for now, what I’m digging this month. First, we have to talk about Game of Thrones. In my opinion, it was the best. season. ever. In fact, it wasRead More →