Austin has a new wine bar—Vintage Books and Wine www.vintagebooksandwine.com It couldn’t be more perfect for me (and you, too, I think). They have wine, a great atmosphere, wine, a good selection of romances, and wine. All books on the shelves are trade paperbacks or hardcovers so my mass market sized books weren’t available. However, they had an…
I first met Kathy at a Kansas book group. I’d been invited to speak and, boom! Just like that, a friendship started. Every time I am in Kansas, Kathy comes to see me. We laugh, we catch up, and she takes a picture of us holding previous year pictures. It is our inside joke and then we laugh about…
I spend hours for days on end thinking about why people fall in love. And not just any love but the kind of love that lasts a lifetime—and here is one thing I know is true: Love without acceptance is an empty emotion. Granted, showing acceptance to everyone I love can be a bit of…
Sitting in Tucson, waiting to return to wintry Virginia. Got lots going through my mind. . . . the festival was packed with readers and the most incredible authors in the business. I was able to cement old friendships and develop new. Here is what I gleaned from the event: – Social media is becoming…
#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…
When a paperback novel that would go for $8 in the US is sold for twice and often three times that amount in Australia, you know Aussie romance readers are a dedicated bunch. But my respect for these readers is based on more than a desire to push books. I’d met many of them at…
So my mom died Monday, December 17th. No, wait, this review gets better. Really. My wife and I own hundreds of books. We read voraciously. I have, easily, a dozen books on my nightstand that I am in various stages of reading. I enjoy biographies, sci-fi, epic fantasy, crime drama, literature, just about anything well-written….
And, no, I am not going to say “character, character, character,” although character is one of them. Compelling characters—people we feel we must understand—can send a mediocre plot into the stratosphere. A fascinating character, one with depth and true complexities, can drive me into a story and I’ll never let go until the last word….
“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…
For the February 13th issue of my regional paper, the reporter and photo editor suggested highlighting my interview with a portrait “similar to, but not exactly like, a book cover . . . lounging on your bed with your books scattered around you, a rose and some chocolates.” My response was short and to the…