I started seriously writing in 1991. This coming May 2016, I will have been at this profession for twenty-five years. That’s a good milestone. So, here are a few things I’ve learned over the years. I’ll add more as I consider them: No one will believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. Few…
It isn’t unusual for authors of other genres to read their work at book signings. However, in Romance, we haven’t done it that often until Hope Tarr, Maya Rodale, and others started Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC. Now there are a host of Romance genre reading programs, many using the “Lady Jane” in the title,…
Some people go for tattoos; others for significant jewelry—and use them to create symbols that define their lives. I’ve done one of the two. I’ll let you decide which. However, recently, I found myself mulling over the idea of a definitive statement for me. What truly defined me? What principle has guided everything I have…
I received a request for general rules on how to end a good, loving story. Or any story for that matter. Although I HATE writing rules, here are my thoughts. Good endings wrap up loose ends. All questions should be answered. When I start your book, you and I have a pact: I’ll read to the…
This was first published on www.foxnews.com 11/11/2014 Veterans keep giving, long after the uniform is retired: We represent every economic class in this country, every culture, and every race. We are teachers, accountants, police officers, and administrators. We serve as nurses, doctors, firefighters, lawyers, mechanics, electricians, barbers and hairdressers, therapists and technicians in every shape…
I’m reading a lyrical, insightful book right now by the educator and poet Parker J. Palmer titled LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK: Listening to the Voice of Vocation. Yeah, I know, that sounds heavy but it is actually a wonderful read during this Season of Gratitude when we take stock of the year we’ve lived. What…
Dear Lisa Loopner— Thank you for being a nerd. Thank you for being earnest and naïve and corny. Thank you for letting your glasses slide down your nose, and punching ‘em up with one finger when you say to Todd, “That was so funny, I forgot to laugh.” Thank you for wanting to please your…
When my writer friends I went to Scotland, we spent the week in a cottage that was charming, and haunted. Not all of us heard or saw the ghost. Two did. We thought they were whacky. After all, the group as a whole makes up stuff for a living. Why wouldn’t two of us be guilty…
#1 Community matters. Instead of the handout generation, my dad was raised as part of the “let me give a hand” generation. Back in his day, his hometown Garnett might as well have been light years from Kansas City. If things were going to get done, it was up to the community to make it…
“Faith without action is only hope.” There is a quote to hit you right between the eyes. A friend said it to me the other night and since then I’ve been turning the implications of his words around in my mind. Almost every day someone will tell me he or she wants to write. They…